"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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"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 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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"Esta investigación aborda el papel de la comunicación digital en la configuración de la fe religiosa, en un contexto cultural predominantemente mediático que, a través de las nuevas tecnologías de la información y de la comunicación, podría estar acelerando el apogeo de La sociedad del esp
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ectáculo profetizada por Guy Debord (1967). Indagar de qué modo la sociedad del espectáculo interfiere o no en la comunicación digital de la fe religiosa, tomando como referencia el estudio comparativo de cuatro sitios web en dos países de América Latina (Brasil y Colombia) y de diferentes denominaciones religiosas (católico y neopentecostal), constituye el propósito de esta tesis doctoral, enmarcada en los estudios cualitativos sobre media y religión, con el recurso de la etnografía virtual y del análisis de contenido. Los resultados de esta pesquisa sitúan el espectáculo de la fe religiosa a través de cinco categorías analítico-interpretativas: Religión y sociedad; Iglesia y poder; Iglesia y marketing; Religión y mediatización; y Fe y espectáculo." (Resumen)
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"Set in ancient Egypt and loosely based on the story of Moses, “The Ten Commandments” is billed as Brazil’s first biblical soap opera. Swathed in Egyptian robes and sporting lapis lazuli jewelry and Cleopatra wigs, some of the characters are based on biblical or other historic figures, while o
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thers are invented. The soap is taking the country by storm. It’s helped propel the Rede Record television network, owned by the founder of Brazil’s main Pentecostal church, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, into a showdown with top broadcaster Globo, which for decades has had a lock on prime-time soaps, known as novelas." (Introduction)
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"In 1905, Weber contended that uncertainty about their eternal fate forced Protestants to find secular signs of their destiny in their vocations, their frugality and in their ability to work hard and accumulate capital. More than a century later, the ‘Protestant ethic’ has changed irrevocably. T
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oday, the phenomenal rise of Pentecostal–Charismatic Churches has largely displaced the doctrine of predestination and firmly entrenched the prosperity gospel at the very heart of popular Protestantism. In many African PCCs, the pursuit of ‘blessings’ now trumps older concerns over secular vocations and hard work. Indeed, in churches such as the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), Christians are urged to demand ‘miracle jobs’ from God and to reject humble vocations and small salaries, regardless of their qualifications, skills or experience. Based on long-term fieldwork with members of the UCKG in South Africa, this paper examines the work of luck (good and bad) in the lives of ordinary believers, how this new ‘work’ attempts to regulate the flow of money and how it participates in older notions of prosperity, fate and good fortune." (Abstract)
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"The UCKG’s phenomenal success in post-apartheid South Africa had been a source of much speculation. Scholars generally attributed the church’s growth to new political and economic processes while the South African media and the church’s critics suspected that the UCKG’s attraction was caref
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ully manipulated by a predatory multinational business. Beyond the structural reasons why the UCKG might be attractive to South Africans, I have paid attention in this chapter to local “cultural” reasons why the church had such wide appeal. I showed that the church’s prosperity gospel and its spiritual warfare provided “answers” that were almost immediately grasped by people in search of religious efficacy. The UCKG’s “answers” were also contingent in ways that converged with local ideas about witchcraft and the flow of prosperity from the spiritual to the material world. Unlike other Christian churches then, the uckg did not offer attendees at its services an escape from the work of evil in the world. Instead, the church depicted Christians as fundamentally constrained because of their situatedness in the world and their fallibility as transactors with their spiritual benefactor. In the UCKG then, people were often told that their blessings would not materialise unless they tithed and sacrificed to God. Although this version of Christianity was arguably less poetic or hopeful than the millenarian promises of other Pentecostal Charismatic Churches, it rang true for many South Africans who remained poor, ill and unhappy despite political liberation. As one of my friends in the church remarked, “They are not new but their message is very strong.”
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"The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), a church of Brazilian origin, has been enormously successful in establishing branches and attracting followers in post-apartheid South Africa. Unlike other Pentecostal Charismatic churches (PCCs), the UCKG insists that relationships with God be dev
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oid of ‘emotions’, that socialisation between members be kept to a minimum and that charity and fellowship are ‘useless’ in materialising God’s blessings. Instead, the UCKG urges members to sacrifice large sums of money to God for delivering wealth, health, social harmony and happiness. While outsiders condemn these rituals as empty or manipulative, this book shows that they are locally meaningful, demand sincerity to work, have limits and are informed by local ideas about human bodies, agency and ontological balance. As an ethnography of people rather than of institutions, this book offers fresh insights into the mass PCC movement that has swept across Africa since the early 1990s." (Publisher description)
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"O presente artigo tem como tema central o programa Fala Que Eu Te Escuto, produzido pela Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus. Exibido diariamente no início da madrugada na Rede Record, trata-se de um programa em que o sagrado traveste-se de profano. Embora dê a impressão de ser um programa secular
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, se utilizando de todos os ingredientes típicos de um espetáculo televisivo, de forma subliminar veicula mensagens que buscam persuadir os telespectadores. Para tanto, tem como um de seus focos discursivos a demonização do cotidiano." (Resumo)
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"A comunicação cujo conteúdo é centrado nas qualidades e nos diferenciais da marca religiosa, exatamente como é recorrente nas ações da Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, busca relacionar os benefícios do entretenimento a ela, possibilitando à igreja integrar sua imagem marcária ao discurs
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o, não eximindo o público receptor de desfrutar do programa no qual está inserida a branded content — comunicação por conteúdo. O presente artigo aborda o fenômeno religioso em curso que sobrepuja a categoria de religião perdida para o religioso por todas as partes-, cenário contemporâneo no qual a religiosidade é manifesta intensamente na vida privada das pessoas, em formas afetivas e emocionais, sem referência à doutrina ou à instituição eclesiástica." (Resumo)
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"A propósito das disputas entre a Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus e a Igreja Mundial do Poder de Deus no primeiro semestre de 2012, o artigo estuda a dimensão do espetáculo e do mercado cultural religioso nas mídias. Por meio de uma pesquisa exploratória dos principais escândalos e embates e
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nvolvendo igrejas e líderes religiosos nas mídias nas últimas décadas, o estudo busca (1) localizar o fenômeno da espetacularização da fé como uma estratégia de marketing, como resposta à concorrência, que inclui a visibilidade também por meio de conflitos; (2) indicar caminhos que instigam a novas investigações." (Resumo)
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"For many years now, the sphere of the main Pentecostal denominations has gone way beyond their physical churches and members. To some extent, they operate like businesses, and they use the media to exert a strong influence on society. Some of them own national TV stations and publish high-circulati
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on newspapers. Their direct influence on politics has also increased steadily. Many members of the state parliaments and the National Congress also hold positions in the Pentecostal churches. The churches have not yet succeeded in getting one of their members directly elected to the highest political positions, but they have been able to use their close ties with certain politicians to exercise significant indirect political influence for the benefit of their own clientele. The Pentecostals are particularly powerful in the favelas, which receive little assistance from the Brazilian welfare state. In many areas that are ruled by the drug gangs, the only safe way of getting out of the drug trade is to join one of the Pentecostal churches, as this is deemed acceptable by the gangs. In contrast, other churches or religions are being squeezed out – sometimes violently. The image of the Pentecostal Church is therefore something of a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it is often stressed that it provides its members with a sense of stability and direction. The strict ban on alcohol and drugs, the feeling of belonging to a strong community, and the inclusion of certain rituals from the Afro-Brazilian animist religions that can turn spiritual experiences into a state of religious ecstasy – all these elements can help the Church’s followers to feel they have the power to break out of the vicious circle of poverty and despair. On the other hand, however, Church members have to pay a high monetary price for this; money that is not only reinvested in social projects but which also goes to line the pockets of the Church’s leaders, who are often not whiter-than-white, despite expecting this of their congregations. The most extreme example of this must surely be that of the founder of the Universal, Edir Macedo." (Conclusion)
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"The religious presence on TV programs has been increasing in Brazil, where churches, especially the neopentecostals, have been using the mass communication ways, especially the television, to advertise their messages and attract new followers. This project studies the usage of television by religio
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ns neopentecostals groups and intends to understand how this schedule is perceived by the young people. A research was conducted with young members of Brazilian churches Igreja Apostólica Renascer em Cristo, Bola de Neve Church, Igreja Internacional da Graça de Deus, and Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus and an analysis will be done as well of the TV shows “Clip Gospel Show”, “Bola TV”, “Show da Fé”, and “Fala Que Eu Te Escuto”, produced respectively by those religious groups." (Abstract)
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"A cada ano as igrejas neopentecostais ocupam mais espaço na programação televisiva nacional. A IURD (Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus), que iniciou suas atividades em 1977, fez escola e é considerada como uma instituição religiosa-modelo pelas igrejas dessa corrente religiosa no que se refer
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e à exploração do espaço televisivo para a adesão de fiéis. Neste texto, o autor analisa um programa televisivo desta igreja, revelando o alto grau de profissionalismo na construção de discurso e na utilização dos recursos audiovisuais da televisão." (Resumo)
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