Strážny pes demokracie na retazi zisku

The study deals with the fundamental function of journalism in its current view, with the commercial character of media institutions and with the internal motivation of their employees. All the three problems are solved in the view of the religious message behaviour in the media communication process. The author concludes that it is a fault to identify the function of journalism with the function to make money, because it mixes the mission of journalism with the mission of media institutions. But the commercial character of the media as the institutions is natural and has an important motivation role. Therefore, it is much easier to motivate the journalists in the commercial media than the journalists in the non-profit ones. The journalists active outside of the commercial scene must be “better” in their personal characteristics. As the religious communication is in the relation to the profit antagonistic to the media communication, the religious message is confronted here with difficult challenges.