New religious communication processes: “creative destruction” in contents - case study

Abstract

We are living a time of intense renovation in what concerns the way the Catholic Church interacts with its citizens. In a certain sense, the “creative destruction” defended by Schumpeter (1942) also applies to the world of religion, once the new technologies have been replacing other ways of getting in touch with people. New paradigms and the notion that speech should become closer, leads the Church to adhere to the new digital and interactive media . Thus, we are witnessing the internet as a missionary tool, whether through websites or through social networks like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter or Youtube, a theme already presented in studies at IAMCR (Balonas: 2010, 2011). In short, religion is renewing its discourse with the outside world, creating new bridges of contact, seeking for more followers. Portuguese religious institutions are also aware of the power of these new mediators, reason why they have been hiring advertising and communication companies to implement new strategies for communication, targeting the younger. But this seems to be insufficient. A recent case study shows that the speech and the contents have to be rethought in an internal level, within the catholic community. It is no longer enough to change the way they communicate with the outside, they must also change internal communication trying to motivate all stakeholders in the complex process of adherence to religion.