Internet as a missionary tool 2.0

Abstract

In a case study presented in 2010 (IAMCR Braga, Portugal) we decided to look at communications strategies in the religion sector. The presented study was focused on the analysis of a campaign launched in Portugal by Secretariado das Vocações in 2009. Under the claim “Discover a world you think you already know. Open your mind to www.myspace.com/vocacoes”, this national campaign uses a social network page where young people can discuss, create a friend network and find the other side of the religious life. As a method of approach, we have shared data on young people's behavior through market research, followed by an analysis of a Vocations Campaign on MySpace concerning semiotic and pragmatic and also campaing’s results. In order to evaluate the consistency of the phenomenon, now we propose to discuss the campaign launched by the same entity, in the following year (2010). Using Facebook as a mediation platform, the campaign under the claim "More people like you!" seems to confirm the success of such strategies in institutions that seek to renew its speech as a mode of survival in the religious market. Why is this happening? There is a change of Christianity as culture to Christianity as a choice (Brieresly, 1991). At the same time, we live in a time of multiple beliefs in a multi-religious world. And also in a time of atheísm growth. Religion adapts itself, reivents itself, revitalizing the Word of God through new signs and new discourses. The young, digital natives, no longer accept traditional Faith models transmission. In an european context, Christianity is now a question of choice rather than a cultural inheritance. The change of paradigms and the conscience that the speech should be closer the youth, led the Church to adhere without reservation to the new digital media and interactive. Therefore, we watch to the evangelization of the digital generation via social networks such as MySpace, Facebook and Youtube. The portal Pope2You, created by the Vatican, has links to the main social networks – Youtube, Facebook and Twitter, and allows seeing Vatican videos and the Pope’s speeches. The Facebook application Pope2You provides papal messages and the H2Onews application for iPhone and iPod assure Church news all over the world. Ways to spread God’s message through a “technological media near the young” (Agência Eclesia). The portuguese church institutions, as in other countries, are aware of the power of these new mediators and hire advertising agencies to implement new communication strategies focused on the youth. These campaigns seems to validate the existence of a network society, where the Internet emerges as a missionary tool, in line with a digital generation that likes a “living space with a vibrant presence, human and collective” (Kerckhove, 1995).

Key words: religion, marketing, advertising, internet, digital natives.