"This sociological and ethnographic study develops and employs an ecosystemic approach to examine the effects of digitalization on religious beliefs and practices among young Christians in a Pentecostal megachurch in Singapore. Through extensive fieldwork and qualitative data analysis, this paper un
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covers how the religious identity of young Christians evolves within a dynamic ecosystem shaped by indirect and direct digitalization. It outlines how Christian beliefs and practices transform indirectly through the digitalization of faith-based communities and religious authorities, and directly through individual engagement with social media and communication apps. This research contributes to understanding the interplay between religion and digitalization in the lives of young Christians in Southeast Asia, which calls for further exploration in this diverse cultural context. Conceptually, this paper proposes a framework for a more systematic and comprehensive study of the blended nature of online and offline religion, digital religion." (Abstract)
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"Este libro es parte de la elaboración de un Trabajo Integrador Final para obtener el título de grado como Licenciada en Comunicación Social con orientación en Periodismo, Producción de Contenidos y Gestión de medios en la Facultad de Periodismo y Comunicación Social de la Universidad Naciona
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l de La Plata, que consistió en la realización de un estudio de investigación sobre los métodos comunicacionales que tiene la Iglesia Universal del Reino de Dios (IURD) en la localidad de Florencio Varela, a partir de las creencias, el discurso y las prácticas religiosas que se llevan a cabo en el mundo evangélico en el que se desenvuelven tanto la feligresía con la iglesia, como la iglesia con sus adeptos en el marco del lazo recíproco comunicacional que se establece entre ambos." (Introducción)
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"Nas últimas décadas, a utilização das mídias por igrejas evangélicas brasileiras se intensificou com a disseminação das redes sociais na internet. Viu-se também uma ampliação do mercado de bens culturais religiosos, sobretudo na área da música. Se essas múltiplas mediações comunicac
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ionais servem aos propósitos religiosos, políticos e econômicos das igrejas, a consolidação desses mercados também apresenta desafios às autoridades dessas instituições, ao dar visibilidade a uma multiplicidade de agentes e discursos que fogem ao seu controle. Neste artigo, a partir do estudo de redes sociais de lideranças religiosas e de artistas da música gospel, discutiremos de que forma questões raciais circulam no mundo religioso evangélico a partir de suas margens. A pesquisa que deu origem a este artigo se baseia no estudo das carreiras de artistas gospel e suas atividades nas redes sociais e permite observar que as questões raciais têm adentrado as igrejas evangélicas não a partir da ação exclusiva de lideranças, mas de suas margens sem, no entanto, provocar mudanças estruturais." (Resumo)
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"Neste texto, analisamos a trajetória eleitoral da deputada Cantora Mara Lima, procurando perceber como a candidata construiu seu carisma nas eleições estaduais paranaenses em 2014, 2018 e 2022, em sintonia com o projeto político da Assembleia de Deus (AD). Procedemos à coleta e sistematizaçã
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o de materiais publicados em suas mídias sociais, problematizando a instrumentalização de elementos simbólicos e performáticos para construir sua identidade, mimetizando sua “unção” gospel em capital político. Nesse movimento, a AD forneceu uma série de recursos institucionais por meio de um modelo de representação corporativa, propício para a dramatização político-religiosa e a formação do carisma da cantora, mobilizando os afetos do público-fiel. Observamos como a articulação entre a agência carismática da artista e a força da estrutura eclesiástica tem alcançado bons resultados nos pleitos analisados, em tempos de recrudescimento das polarizações e difusão de uma religião pública." (Resumo)
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"O artigo traz resultados de pesquisa de doutoramento acerca da comicidade como estratégia discursiva nas religiosidades contemporâneas. No contexto de intensificação da presença do humor e do riso nas ambiências religiosas, compreendemos esse fenômeno como uma das consequências das sociedad
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es em midiatização. São analisadas práticas discursivas de dois atores sociais destacados do cenário cristão brasileiro, o padre Fábio de Melo e o Pastor Cláudio Duarte. Do ponto de vista teórico-metodológico, foram analisadas diferentes tentativas comunicacionais desses atores sociais, identificando marcas discursivas da construção de distintas formas de comicidade, também tensionadas por uma intensa atividade circulatória interdiscursiva. O trabalho contribui com as pesquisas nas interfaces entre mídia, cultura, comunicação e religião no que concerne, especialmente, às dinâmicas de construção de efeitos de sentido em torno da comicidade na relação com as religiosidades." (Resumo)
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"In Brasilien paktieren evangelikale Kirchen offen mit rechtsextremen Politikern um den Ex-Präsidenten Jair Bolsonaro. Die Regierung der Arbeiterpartei von Präsident Lula da Silva sucht nach einem Rezept gegen diese unheilvolle Allianz. Sie müsste vor allem ihre soziale Basis in den verarmten Vor
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städten der brasilianischen Metropolen zurückerobern." (Einleitung)
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"The connection between Evangelical church actors and contemporary Brazilian federal politics has raised many speculations, especially regarding the association of these churches with neoliberalism and populist governments. In a different manner, this article aims to show how churches from the third
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wave of Pentecostalism, and the Universal Church in particular, engage in the most recent historical phase of Brazilian democracy that began in the late 1980’s. The grow of Universal Church and the democratic development of Brazil are investigated in parallel here, giving light to the different political connections and arrangements this church has been part of in the last decades. This makes it possible to understand what the alliances between the Universal Church and the country’s presidency actually mean for both the church institution and its common members." (Abstract)
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"Following Robertson’s discussions on epistemic capital, the article analyses worldmaking procedures being used by members of one of the biggest neo-Pentecostal churches in Brazil – Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus. According to the popular narrative, social media, especially WhatsApp groups, c
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ontributed in a crucial way to the spread of sets of conspiracy theories aimed to question “established narratives” and creating an image of Jair Bolsonaro, currently the president of Brazil, as the sole hero (“the messiah” and “the myth”) fighting against the “corrupted” Brazilian state and the “globalist/communist cabal.” The article discusses interactions between members of so-called families created by the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus. These families could have between a few or around one hundred members, and they are in regular communication (at least a few times per day) through WhatsApp. Most members of one family do not live in walking proximity; therefore, using WhatsApp is often the primary way they interact. The article puts families into a broader context of the media ecosystem owned or influenced by Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus and contextualizes the church as a religious “infrastructure of knowing.” The article discusses sources of legitimization of particular knowledge produced and mediated between families. The article argues that communication in families contributes to the creation of unique epistemic tools crucial in re-creating individual worldviews of members Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus. (Abstract)
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"This survey paper interrogates four theoretical frameworks often invoked to analyze intersections between media and religion: mediatization, mediation of meaning, mediation of the beyond, and religious social shaping of technology. The paper surveys several research works informed by the aforementi
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oned theories that study Pentecostals' engagement with different forms of media in Africa. This paper suggests that these theories need to be revised to provide a balanced assessment of Pentecostalism and media technologies. Advancements in technology, particularly sophisticated of algorithms, transformed media into an intelligent and dynamic space that enormously influences media consumers. The theory of mediatization gave power and agency to media logic. However, the other theories (mediation of meaning, mediation of the beyond, and religious social shaping of technology) focused on human agency and saw media as an inert space with many features that users can use as they see fit. To remedy this unbalanced relationship, the paper calls for a new theory that accounts for the agency of both the users and the media platforms." (Abstract)
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"Research has well documented the evidence of the growth of prosperity gospel churches across the globe, but there is a dearth of studies that investigate the interface between culture and exploitative rhetoric among African prosperity gospel ministers. Examining the concept of making sacrificial of
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ferings in the traditional African context, I theorize that culture has significant influence on the exploitative power of prosperity gospel ministers by the following considerations: the African tradition of consulting oracles for solution to spiritual and physical problems, the cultural practice of making sacrificial offerings to the gods in exchange for favor, and the poor socio-economic condition of many prosperity gospel adherents in Africa. This study highlights the use of the rhetoric of spiritual engagement and liberation for audience manipulation, examines the idea of the pure gift, proposes some ethical questions that should govern the prosperity movement, and underscores the need for scholarly engagement." (Abstract)
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"This article investigates how the churches in Paraguay have used multiple mass media as evangelization instruments and which churches dominate the mass media in 2010–2012, following the growth explosions of Pentecostalism in the 1980s–1990s and especially after 2002. Church uses of the printed
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media (books, magazines and newspapers), radio, television, and internet in Paraguay are all analyzed. Pentecostal and Protestant church leaders used radio, television, and internet to successfully brand their church, and to a limited extent attract and socialize new followers. Hardly any believers intensively follow religion in the mass media to replace going to church. The article concludes that rather than a Pentecostalization, a Mennonitization of the mass media is occurring in Paraguay, driven by the Mennonite groups’ economic power and their ethnic-religious solidarity." (Abstract)
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"Os pastores de internet ocupam um lugar de fala privilegiado e põem em circulação as estratégias para o compartilhamento de suas respectivas mensagens, tornando-se referências para os seus milhões de seguidores. No cenário brasileiro, um dos youtubers mais famosos quando se trata de pregaç
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o de mensagem evangélica na internet é Deive Leonardo, 31 anos de idade. Seguido por mais de 16 milhões de pessoas nas mídias sociais, Deive Leonardo é convidado para participar como entrevistado em programas de TV, a exemplo do programa The Noite, apresentado por Danilo Gentili. Como estudo de caso, objetivamos analisar como o pastor de internet constrói narrativas midiático-religiosas que representam o seu “eu”. O pastor de internet é um fenômeno da midiatização digital da religião, porque na lógica dos processos midiáticos, potencializados pelas ambiências das redes sociais digitais, a atuação e a identidade pastoral evangélica são diferentes dos processos estabelecidos historicamente pela instituição religiosa. O fiel autônomo é conhecido como pastor a partir da circulação de suas estratégias de comunicação midiática e não pelo fato de desenvolver um ministério pastoral em uma determinada igreja física e local." (Abstract)
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"O objetivo deste artigo é analisar as relações entre religião e política no Brasil contemporâneo, tomando como corpus de análise vídeos publicados pelo pastor evangélico da Igreja Assembleia de Deus Vitória em Cristo, Silas Malafaia. Um dos mais importantes líderes evangélicos do país,
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proprietário de um considerável conglomerado midiático (que vai de programas de rádio, editora e TV), Malafaia tem se destacado no cenário político nacional pelo menos desde a eleição de 2010. No ano de 2020, durante o segundo turno, produziu uma série de vídeos sobre a disputa em diversos munícipios, interpelando seus interlocutores como “povo abençoado” e proferindo uma série de ataques aos candidatos de esquerda, utilizando-se da ocasião para reproduzir sua oposição a tal campo político a partir da ideia de “perigo” que suas vitórias poderiam representar. Ao analisarmos sua argumentação, defendemos a hipótese de que sua discursividade traduz elementos de uma “guerra cultural” encetada por grupos conservadores no espaço público contemporâneo, com considerável capital midiático, sobretudo nas redes sociais." (Abstract)
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"Megachurches have a reputation for savvy use of digital media; however, little is known about their advertising strategy or which strategies elicit engagement. By assessing megachurches’ promotional content on social media, this study draws on the devotional campaign framework to examine audience
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-centric engagement strategies: God–Congregant, Church–Congregant, and Intra-Congregational. The quantitative content analysis of Facebook and Instagram posts from 15 megachurches in five countries [Australia; New Zealand; United Kingdom; United States; Canada] revealed that megachurches used the combination God–Congregant & Church–Congregant engagement strategies, as well as the singular Church–Congregant engagement strategy, the most often. Yet, audiences engaged significantly more with posts using the God–Congregant engagement strategy when compared to all other strategies. The use of engagement strategies and engagement received on posts varied according to geographical location and cultural differences, suggesting there may be a cultural aspect to what earns engagement from followers. Advertisers looking to increase online engagement should focus their efforts on persuasive messages that include the object-audience engagement strategy. This study advances advertising theory on engagement by suggesting that engagement is contingent upon the engagement strategy utilized as well as the specific region’s norms around the brand and community." (Abstract)
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"This article analyzes discourses of conversion involving members of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) in the city of Madrid, Spain. Drawing on the biographies of members and religious leaders and focusing on their testimonials of conversion in particular, I observe how the church’
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s message of a better life after conversion always relates to a misguided past. I have proposed the concept of self-othering to link the process through which members internalize and interpret their transformations through religion with othering, as the first step, and individual salvation, as the second step. This study observes specific rites of passage, namely baptisms, which induce an individual to become a member of the church. Self-othering as a concept helps to explain how individuals reinterpret their past and present lives through the lens of religious conversion." (Abstract)
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"In Brazil, the Covid-19 pandemic is triggering tensions in health management that provoke, among others, a political crisis led by the federal government, characterized by negationist postures regarding the seriousness of the disease and lack of focus on public health policies. There is also an inf
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ormation crisis enabled by the political strategy of dissemination of disinformation that disqualifies scientific parameters and the role of the press. In this context, churches and Christian religious leaders who have risen to power in recent years play a fundamental role, which allows them to be analyzed from their performance as a public religion. By decreeing the closure of religious temples, as a preventive measure for the advance of the disease, evangelical pentecostal churches insert into the public debate the defense of the essentiality of religious service as a fundamental dimension for society, conferring support and legitimacy to the action of the government. In this sense, this paper argues that the Brazilian scenario, when compared to other Latin American countries, is an outlier. Based on ethnographic research within online media and the religious media circuit, this paper maintains that, nationally, religion takes the lead in the political and information crisis. At the same time, this study affirms that, approaching other countries of the region, the churches reinvented mediatized religious practices, deriving from the social distancing and isolation, and offered new meanings and religious moralities around the health crisis." (Abstract)
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