This paper analyzes the issue of the representation of religious diversity in Lithuanian online media. The first part of the article represents the media’s influence on the formation of public opinion. Also, it describes the most important issues of religious diversity representation in the media. The second part reveals the aspects of media representations of the Lithuanian Catholic Church, other traditional and non-traditional religious communities, and new religious movements. According to the empirical data, it can be stated that very popular online media in Lithuania frequently presents information that is negative, stereotypical and lacks objectivity about various issues related to religious diversity. The empirical data also showed that the analyzed online news portals are in favor of mainstream religious community representational politics that spread dominant religious values, attitudes and contribute to the existence of religious hegemony. However, representations of various new religious movements and other non-traditional religious communities are mostly negative, stereotypical and full of subjective judgments and argumentation.

The article contributes to the theoretical and empirical discussions about the social exclusion of religious minorities in contemporary Lithuania. It is based on the data of the empirical qualitative research – focus group and semi-structured interviews with members of religious minorities in Lithuania. The theoretical part of the article focuses on the relationship between religion and social exclusion and the features of its manifestation; it discusses Pierre Bourdieu and Antonio Gramsci’s theoretical insights. The analysis of empirical data conducted according to the three levels of societal life – macro, meso and micro – that were reflected in the respondents’ narratives demonstrated that social exclusion of religious minorities is manifested at every level of societal life: religious communities and their members are stigmatized and marginalized and their activities in the public sphere are restricted.