Digital pilgrimage: Exploring Catholic monastic webcasts

ABSTRACT

This study questions how religious webmasters view the objectives of their webcasting in relation to pilgrimage. Findings uncovered four facets: (1) mediation of the holy sites and experience; (2) bonding between Holy Land communities and global believers; (3) cultivating agents; (4) media experiences as a pilgrimage surrogate. Drawing on Walter Benjamin, the study elucidates how online videos evoke proximity to the sacred, thus connecting holy sites and believers, while affirming webmasters as secondary actors of religious authority.

KEYWORDS:

• Authenticity
• digital religion
• online video
• pilgrimage
• religion

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Fan Mai and the anonymous reviewers of The Communication Review for their insightful comments. Deep gratitude is offered to Betsy Benjaminson for her helpful comments and devoted editing of the manuscript.

Notes

¹ In recent years, issues of communications and the Internet have been recurrent themes. On papal proclamations on the Internet, see https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/messages/communications/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20100124_44th-world-communications-day.html. On social media’s potential for realizing Catholic ideals, see http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/messages/communications/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20130124_47th-world-communications-day.html

² To protect user anonymity, all names mentioned herein are pseudonyms.

³ On dualism in informal educational settings, see Kahane (1997); for the diachronic dynamics in religious contexts, see Eliade (1958).

Additional information

Funding

I-CORE Program of the Planning and Budgeting Committee and The Israel Science Foundation (grant No. 1716/12) is gratefully acknowledged.