Contenu du sommaire : La communication des institutions religieuses

Churches, cults and sects must be considered as normative organizations Such organisations are confronted with problems of orthodoxy to maintain coherence, continuity and normative legitimacy of their hierarchies or ecclesiastical authorities Beliefs concerning the legitimacy and the authority of these hierarchies may be affected by social changes or internal crisises. These processes cannot been interpreted as a mere displacements of organizational goals because beliefs and structures belong to the religious tradition. The concepts of tradition, integrism and anomie make it possible to build a conceptual paradigm appropriate to the specificity of religious organizations.

Until 1992, the Mexican Constitution denied any juridical personality to the Church and surrounded its activities in a very tight manner. Thus, the Church could not have access to media property. To retain public space, the Catholic Church adopted a twofold strategy : on the one hand, she chose to invest in the field of education ; and founded the first communication schools ; on the other hand, she strove to draw closer to the base by develo-ping supportive actions for the community, as witness the involvement of Mgr Ruiz in the Chiapas.

For centuries, the Catholic Church exerted its power on the secular world which she ruled : the calendar, cadence of the seasons, reasoning, everything was dictated by the Church. At the dawn of the XXIst century, the Church has felt the supremacy of the media, becoming itself a real power. At first feared, then later condemned throughout the years, media has become an essential ally. Today, the media asserts itself as the leader to whom every institution has to bow to, and has succeeded in implanting the logic of social existence : the image is as important today, if not more so than the reality.

In spite of characteristics which could be construed as hindrances (they are a minority, they are divided, reserved, spread out…) French Protestants seem to able communicate in an efficient way. Actually, their theological and ecclesial bases also their assets. Furthermore, the growing importance of communication within companies and organisations has led them to modify in depth the ways in which they interact with the media. In fact, French Protestantism now communicate with professional tools and behaviours as well as, should the need arise, in an amteurish way. This double process can be explained both by the scantiness of the material means available to them and by the reservations some of theirs members have about attitudes which cause upheaval within their culture. These reservations are not subsiding with the extraordinary progression of the new information and communication technologies. As a result, the French Protestants reflexion on the challenges and the good uses of the new media is intensifying.

This text investigates the relation of mutual service that hinds the media and the social actors and looks at it from the point of view of a journalist-entrepreneur that tries to harness the religious phenomenon. It presents the case of Québec's magazine Guide Ressources that became a success story in the early nineties. That monthly covers partially the territory formed by the religions, the sects and the numerous spiritual leaders. It serves the nebulous constellation of the « New Age-beliefs and of the so called alternate practices that prolong the Counter-culture arrived from the United States in the sixties. The venture lived by the managers of that magazine is presented here in the light of the shock provoked by the massacre of the adepts of the Order of the Solar Temple (OTS) in October 1994. The Guide has been namely questioned in relation with that affair. Its editor felt commercially and morally challenged by it precisely because this publication serves as the main public presence of the – new religions – in Québec's french-speaking community.

Heirs of the ancient preachers who travelled up and down during the XVIIIth and XIXth centuries, the televangelists reach their flock by the meaning of television. Their communication is based on a perfect knowledge of this good for public speech medium. The churches of the televangelists are big enterprises and need a large amount of money and they use very often the techniques of marketing for their funds raising-Spectacular production and marketing are two aspects of a profitable communication.

The experience recounts the setting up. within a group reorganizing its structure of a paticipative in-house communication based on formation a testing ground for training. Union between two elements of this group like the Human Ressources Managers and the training center enables the working out of a new communication process wich leads to the renew of the objectives and the methods of training procedures. The involvement of all the firm's colleagues including the employees, characterizes such a new process which can be qualified as « detaylorised».