PICTURE: the adoption of ICTs within the ministrants of the Catholic Church. (original) (raw)
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THE USE OF NEW MEDIA IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
A driving engine these days is not manual work, steam power or electricity, but information. Social and economic life is especially based on formation, searching for and classification of information. New information and communication technologies enable a man to get it everytime, everywhere and via the simplest way, regardless whether he or she is at work or relaxing. Web pages, social networks, QR and AR codes help companies to target all potential customers and to persuade them of their need of offered products and services. This description may be applied not only to financial markets, but also to „market of religions“. One of the results of religious pluralism together with secularism is a wide range of spiritual offers and religiously clear societies are on the decrease. Particular religious societies active within information society must actively try to keep old and gain new “customers“. Besides that, the instruction to spread religion, termed in Christian context as evangelisation is a constitutional element of particular religions and, as a rule, it comes directly from their founders. In our paper we would like to describe activities of the Catholic Church in use of new media. Only recently pope’s twitter account has been covered by media worldwide. Together with efforts of Vatican to keep abreast of the times, we will pay our attention to similar activities of lower levels (diocesan, monastic or parish ones) and we will mention several examples from Slovakia and we will not avoid the theological concept of “evangelisation of the digital continent“.
Priesthood and the Internet: the International Research PICTURE.
in José Maria La Porte & Bruno Mastroianni (Eds.). Comunicazione della Chiesa. Identità e Dialogo., 2012
Numerous studies have investigated the importance of information and communication technology (ICT) as well as the Internet within the ambit of religious communication.
Digital Church and Media – in a Historical and Contemporary Context
The underlying question for this article is: – “is what is now happening online really new, and something never seen outside the internet, and before the internet?” Previous research has to a large extent emphasized the distinctive characteristics of internet culture, as separated from what is happening in the “real/physical” world. That is a approach also valid for how churches online have been seen, and there has been an established distinction between religion online (religious churches and representatives with an online presence), and online religion (religion conducted and practiced in an online environment). However, technical advantages in recent years (which also has changed our behavior online) has made this distinction more fluid and difficult to defend. But there is also a historical continuity of using modern media within the church, making it difficult to claim that contemporary transformations within the Christian sphere are unique. There are several historical examples of how media use changes religious faith and practices throughout time. This article will put digital churches into a contemporary and historical context in order to discuss if it is relevant to uphold a distinction between churches online vis-à-vis churches offline.
This study suggests the audience that needs to be reached in the Catholic Church and that audience’s characteristic behavior towards using the tools of the new media in relation to their attendance in and commitment to church activities. Three hundred and two young Catholics ages 12 to 24 residing at the St. Cloud diocese, Minnesota, U.S.A. responded to the survey. An electronic non-random survey was carried out. The study asked what tools of the new media the Catholic youths use the most and how they use them. The results revealed a strong involvement by the Catholic youths in the use of the Internet. Eighty-three percent of Catholic youths are likely to use the Internet on a daily basis. The results show that Catholic youths are more likely to be familiar with social network sites than with weblogs, and are likely to be found more on social network sites such as Facebook and YouTube. The most likely activity carried out by this group online is watching video webcast or clips. The results suggest loss of interest on religious issues by Catholic youths. The findings show that more Catholic youths are undecided if they will participate in activities organized online by the church. This study concluded that although the results do not point to enthusiastic Catholic youths who are ready to participate in all kinds of activities organized by the church online, the findings of this study show that the church has ample opportunities to utilize this new means of social communications to appeal to its younger audience. Of particular interest will be the use of social network sites, especially those that provide visuals and motion. Future studies may focus on the Church in developing countries to determine how the young are doing in their use of the Internet in an environment of slower technological advancement.
Proceedings Of International Conference On Communication Science
The Internet is connecting people and organizations around the world in new ways, changing the way we relate to one another, find resources, share information, and form communities. These changes also have implications for church institutions and Catholics in Indonesia. This article provides an overview of the use of the Internet, social media, and digital media in the Catholic church. The study identifies (1) characteristics of social media accounts managed by the official hierarchy of the Catholic Church versus social accounts managed lay Catholics groups, (2) and the role of the Internet and social media in the Catholic church in Indonesia. This study concludes that Catholic Church accepts and has positive hopes for the presence of the Internet because it offers potential or opportunities for proclaiming the Catholic faith. The Covid-19 pandemic has brought fresh air to change the Indonesian Catholic Church to go digital. If before the Covid-19 pandemic, the catechesis was mostly...
Becoming a Vaticanist. Religious Information in the Digital Age
Informing on the Catholic Church requires some features that go beyond the classical procedures of “simple” journalism: its social outreach is inseparably bound to its spiritual nature and understanding that is the first step in a journalistic narrative that is faithful to reason and the identity of the institution. That premise leads the way to know and learn several other specificities, starting from the dynamic that characterizes the “production” of information on the Church’s part – which is linked to the original mandate of its founder – to the principles that it animates and the hierarchical structure it characterizes. Understanding this, one can move on to examine the channels from where materials are drawn to elaborate (sources, documentation), which is also very specific, without neglecting in this case the aspect of training and professional growth. Good corporate communications support will then make a difference.
Popes in Digital Era: Reflecting on the Rise of the Digital Papacy
Problemi dell'Informazione, 2019
Some have suggested the current papal office represents a newly evolved, digital literate and media engaged entity. This has led to framing the current curia as a «digital papacy». Under the oversight of Pope Francis the Internet now plays a vital role, not only in facilitating the dissemination of religious information and teachings for the Catholic church, but in how it seeks to represent itself in a globally networked world. Since the instillation of Pope Francis, the Roman curia of the Catholic Church has increasingly embraced social media, like Instagram and Twitter, as resources for spiritual and informational dissemination. The further refining of digital resources such as Vatican.va, have been credited to raising the prominence of Pope Francis’ digital profile. Pope Francis’ re-working of the Curia Communication Offices and structures also shows his close attention to the role media plays in the Church. Such innovation have been credited with the creation of a digital papacy, where the papal office is shown as being more seriously invested and strategically aware of how new media technologies can and should be leveraged for religious purpose for the sake of the Church’s mission. However, this paper seeks to investigate the claim that the current papal office has indeed institute a new approach to media in a digital age, and interrogate the claim that a unique digital papacy currently exists. By comparing Pope Francis’ media use and strategies to that of the two previous papal office we begin to see that the papal office does now exist and function within a unique media moment – readily embracing digital media – and it takes part of a longer historic trajectory of media use and understanding in the Vatican. In this paper we argue that while the current media work of Pope Francis can be described as a digital papacy, it is only because of the way it emulates and operates within a broader theological strategy grounded in six or more decades of theological teaching on Social Communication within the Church.