The Limits of Public Attention to Religious Diversity: Visibility and Noticeability of Religious Organizations

In the author’s previous research, a multitude of religious organizations were identified operating in the Republic of Belarus and becoming the object of public attention. Their comparison showed that only a minority of religious organizations are mentioned and discussed in public discourse, and the natural state of the life cycle of most religious organizations is to remain outside the public eye. This article is devoted to the study of the phenomena of visibility and noticeability of religious organizations. Visibility is considered to be the ability of a religious organization to stand out against the background of the confessional space. Noticeability is regarded as the ability of the population and social institutions to distinguish the religious organizations against the background of the confessional structure of society. The influence of visibility and noticeability on the activities of religious organizations, on the prospects for their growth and development, on the structure of the confessional milieu, and on the formation of public ideas and illusions on the topic of religion are analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the development of an algorithm for calculating the noticeability index of religious diversity — an integral indicator reflecting the level of society’s sensitivity to the diversity of religious organizations in any given country and period of time. The data previously obtained as part of the study of social identification of religious organizations are used to develop and test formulas for calculating four sub-indices reflecting different components of the noticeability of religious organizations: a) sensitivity to their number; b) frequency of their mentions; c) sustainability of attention to them; d) sensitivity to different segments of the confessional structure. The index of noticeability of religious diversity is an important indicator that should be taken into account when analyzing and describing the religious landscape.