Miriam Diez Bosch
Josep Lluís Micó
Josep Maria Carbonell (eds.)
Facultat de Comunicació i Relacions Internacionals Blanquerna
Universitat Ramon Llull
Barcelona, 2015
With support from
The research leading to this book has been made possible thanks to l’Obra Social “la Caixa”
Facultat de Comunicació i Relacions Internacionals Blanquerna
Plaça Joan Coromines s/n. Barcelona 08001
Tel. 93 253 31 08. http://blanquerna.edu/fcc
Primera edició: setembre 2015
Drets d’edició: Facultat de Comunicació i Relacions Internacionals Blanquerna. Universitat Ramon Llull
ISBN: 978-84-941193-8-5
Dipósit Legal: B.25.502-2015
Contents
Preface
Notes on the contributors
Biblical aspects of the new digital culture
e-Participation and civic engagement. Active citizenship and Catholic associations in the framework of dialogic democracy
What we can learn from secular Social Media networks. Deliberating together: a new paradigm of dialogue in the net
iBreviary as new concept of religious app
God in Facebook, Like it or Not: Filipino Youth Response to Socially Mediated Religious Message
Internet and Catholicism in Latin America: a virtual community
How Catholic internet forums are changing Catholicism. The Polish experience.
Rezandovoy: an example of digitalization of religion in the Spanish-speaking Catholic world
Miriam Díez
Josep Lluís Micó
Josep Maria Carbonell
One thing that is striking about the Catholic Church is its permanence. As an organization, the Church has survived cultural changes and varying political scenarios and is even now adapting with no major resistance to the new information technologies. Roman Catholicism still creates a sort of fascination and interest on the Net.
The Internet encourages the formation of what Graham (1999) called pure confluences of interest. In other words, the ability to simply surf a vast unstructured web of material which both expresses and provokes an enormous variety of tastes and interests gives way to mere congruence rather than coordination. This is exactly what Catholics find, express, celebrate, proclaim and make viral via the Internet: a confluence of interests which is universal.
The book begins and continues with chapters discussing ways and examples of what it means for Catholicism to be online, in the sense that even if it is already known that faithful are online, it is not always evident if they are now forming an online religion or merely adapting themselves to the new space and time.
Amongst the more enthusiastic forms of engagement that emerged recently in the Catholic Church, certainly the digital arena is one of the most interesting and is one of the prominent ways in which Catholics have found common ground to share and celebrate their world vision.
The chapters in this book have been organized by starting with a common general analysis and ending with specific case studies from different parts of the world. The chapters of the book cover a broad range of topics dealing mainly with the intersection of religion and technology from a concrete and delimited angle: the Roman Catholic Church.
In the first chapter, Paul Soukup SJ, a communications professor at Santa Clara University in the US, addresses the issues of authority, community, values and education in his “Biblical Aspects of the New Digital Culture”. He offers a biblical list of digital resources useful for understanding the reciprocal interest between the Bible and digital age users.
Michele Sorice discusses Catholic associations and digital participation. The chapter entitled “e-Participation and Civic Engagement. Active Citizenship and Catholic Associations in the Framework of Dialogic Democracy” explores the clues of civic engagement on the Net and illustrates the case of Italian Catholic associations. Sorice, a professor of deliberative democracy and new technologies as well as political sociology at LUISS University in Rome, sees these associations as new forms of civic activism which adopt internal practices of participatory democracy and defines them as peculiar elements of social movements, especially the global justice movement.
In addition to this participatory idea, Leticia Soberón, co-founder of www.dontknow.net, www.icxci.com and www.collaboratorium.biz, looks closer at what Catholics can learn from secular social media networks and proposes common deliberation as a new paradigm of dialogue on the Net. More specifically, she advocates for what she calls “collaborative intelligence”.
Paolo Padrini, a Catholic priest and professor at the Theological Institute of Alessandria (Italy) offers new insights into religious apps in “iBreviary as a New Kind of Religious App” where he discovers the genesis of the App iBreviary (created by himself) and explores the idea that apps are not only software that we need to do certain processes, but also vital spaces.
Catholics express themselves online particularly but not only through social media. Among them, Facebook is the most popular. Anthony Roman, Assistant Professorial Lecturer at the Graduate School, Pontifical University of Santo Tomás in Manila, explores Filipino youth responses –by way of their liking, commenting and sharing– to religious texts on Facebook. Participation, especially by cyber-missionaries, demands genuine ‘witnessing’ as well as some friendly sharing and explaining of religious thoughts.
Cornejo Urbina, Director of the School of Journalism, University Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Peru, studies the issue of “Internet and Catholicism in Latin America: A Virtual Community” and postulates that the Catholic Church meets their Latin Americans members online nowadays. Latin America has the world’s largest Catholic population (of the 1.254 billion Catholics around the globe, 49% live in Latin America). Furthermore, young people are becoming closer to the Catholic Church through social media. In this context, the online presence of Pope Francis and his culture of communication are key components to successful Vatican evangelization according to Cornejo.
Marta Kołodziejska offers a sociological reflection on the function of Catholic forums as digital frontiers of religion and faith in Poland. Kołodziejska, a PhD student at the Institute of Sociology, University of Warsaw, Poland, concludes that male dominance in Catholic forums is noteworthy and that the majority of most active users (with over 500 posts) are over 35 years old. Interestingly, the second largest group (after Roman Catholics) on the analysed Catholic forums were atheists.
Xabier Riezu, a lecturer and researcher at the Universidad de Deusto in Bilbao, in the Basque Country, outlines the case of “Rezandovoy” as an example of the digitization of religion in the Spanish-speaking Catholic world. Rezandovoy is a prayer tool that constitutes a worthy case for studying how organizations, communities and individuals make use of communication technologies and for reflecting upon the relationship between digital media and religion.
This book, along with another volume from this Blanquerna Observatory Collection called Negotiating Religious Visibility is part of a broader research project led by the Blanquerna Observatory from the Ramon Llull University (internationalization grant programme). The research completed with these results was accomplished with funding from the “Obra Social La Caixa”.
Carbonell Abelló, Josep Maria. Dean of Blanquerna School of Communication and International Relations (Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona) since 2010 where he has taught political science and media studies since 1996. Academic Visitor at the CSLS (PCMPL), University of Oxford, (2010). Deputy Assistant to the President of the Country Council of Barcelona (1987-1995), Member of the Parliament of Catalonia (1996-2005), President of CAC (Catalan Audiovisual Council) (2005-2009). President of Fundació Joan Maragall. President of RIRM (Mediterranean Network of Regulatory Bodies of Media) (2007-08). <josepmca@blanquerna.url.edu>
Cornejo, Franklin. Director of the School of Journalism, University Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Peru. Cornejo´s research includes: ethnographic studies of the media, genres and techniques of journalism, development communications, and inter-cultural communication. He works as a lecturer in Peru and Latin America, as an academic advisor and promoter of initiatives in communications and development. One of his latest articles: “Proposal for an Indigenous Intercultural Communications School in Peru” discusses the work he has done with indigenous communicators in his country. <fcu_75@yahoo.com>
Díez Bosch, Miriam. Director of the Blanquerna Observatory on Media, Religion and Culture in Barcelona. Professor Díez is also the Expert Director at the portal Aleteia.org, in Rome. She holds a PhD in Social Science (Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where she was a Lecturer in Journalism Studies).She has been the Project Coordination of Riseci.eu (Religion in the Shaping of European Cultural Identity). She is currently a Professor of Communication Theory in the International Relations degree programme at the Blanquerna School of Communication and International Relations (Ramon Llull University). <miriamdb@blanquerna.url.edu>
Kołodziejska, Marta. PhD student, Institute of Sociology, University of Warsaw, Poland. Her research interests focus on religion and digital media, religion and popular culture and religious communication. Kołodziejska is a board member of Research Network 34, the European Sociological Association. Her recent publications include “Religion on Catholic Internet Forums in Poland. A Memory Mediated” in the Nordic Journal of Religion and Society vol. 27 (2). <kolodziejskam@is.uw.edu.pl>
Micó, Josep Lluís. Journalism Professor at Ramon Llull University (Barcelona), he is also Vice-Dean at the Blanquerna School of Communication and International Relations. He served as Director of the Journalism degree programme, of the Advanced Reporting master’s degree programme at Blanquerna-Godó, the Fashion 080 MA and of the Master’s Degree in Sports Journalism Blanquerna-FC Barcelona. The Director of the Digilab (Media Strategy and Regulation) Research Group and a Project Coordinator for several research projects, he has published more than 10 books on media and technology. He is a Senior Analyst in Digital, Print and Broadcast Media. <joseplluisms@blanquerna.url.edu>
Padrini, Paolo. A priest from the Diocese of Tortona, Italy. In his studies he has analysed the world of digital media from a semiotic, communicative and pastoral perspective. He has had several books published by Edizioni San Paolo including “Social Networks and Religious Education” (2014), as well as a considerable number of articles published in scientific and theological journals. He is currently a professor of Pastoral Communications Theology at the Theological Institute of Alessandria (Italy). <paolopadrini@me.com>
Riezu, Xabier. Lecturer and researcher at the Universidad de Deusto in Bilbao, in the Basque Country. He teaches at the Faculties of Social and Human Sciences and Economics and Business Science. Riezu’s research interests include work on the social dimensions of communication, the sociology of religion in new media, and immigrants and new media. He also works as a communications adviser for the Society of Jesus and is currently part of the Communications Office of the Province of Spain. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Mensajero magazine. <xriezu@deusto.es>
Roman, Anthony G. Master of Arts in Theology with a major in Social/ Pastoral Communication (MAT-SPC) Pontifical University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines. He holds a Masters in Communication Management (MCM) with a major in Corporate Communication (Asian Institute of Journalism and Communications (AIJC) and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering. He is an assistant professor and lecturer at the Graduate School, Pontifical University of Santo Tomas in Manila and works at the Office of Social Communication (FABC-OSC) at the Federation of Asian Bishops. <anthonygalapiaroman@gmail.com>
Soberón Mainero, Leticia. A Mexican psychologist with a PhD in Social Science and Communication from Pontifical Gregorian University. A co-founder of www.dontknow.net, www.icxci.com and www.collaboratorium.biz, she specialises in collaborative intelligence. A member of the Vatican Media Committee and a consultant for the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. She has coordinated the Church’s digital network in Latin America for 16 years as a member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications staff. Her PhD thesis explored the connective intelligence in church networks. <leticia@dontknow.net>
Sorice, Michele. Professor of Deliberative Democracy and New Technologies as well as Political Sociology at LUISS University in Rome. At the same university, he is also director of the CMDI – Centre for Media and Democratic Innovations “Massimo Baldini”. Michele is an Honorary Professor at University of Stirling, Scotland, UK. As a Invited Professor, he also teaches political science at Pontifical Gregorian University.
His main research interests are: democratic innovations, relationships between media and democracy, participatory and deliberative democracy, political communication, and social and political participation. <msorice@luiss.it>
Soukup, Paul A. S.J. Professor, Department of Communication, Santa Clara University, US. Soukup’s research interests include work on orality and literacy studies, the use of new technologies in religious communication, multimedia translation, and the effects of new technologies. He serves as a member of the Board of Trustrees of the American Bible Society and an adviser to their Research Center for Scripture and Media in the US. Pauline Books and Media published Father Soukup’s most recent book, Out of Eden: 7 Ways God Restores Blocked Communication. <psoukup@scu.edu>