Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

Religions in the media polis: mediatization, Protestants and politics in Brazil 145 the early 2000s, have intensified the attention of scholars and people interested in issues involving “religion” in Brazil. We can identify in this transformation the articulation of six interconnected phenomena (CUNHA, 2017a): 1. the strengthening of the Pentecostal segment, with its extensive number of autonomous, autochtho- nous churches, which gave new contours to the Christianity scene and caused a significant growth of the evangelical population in the country, in numerical and geographic terms, highlighting the sharp drop in the number of Catholics 2 ; 2. the intense occupation of spaces in the traditional media (radio and TV) by evangelical groups, mainly Pentecostals, on their programming and not, ex- panded by the extensive participation of the varied segments of this Christian group in digital media; 3. the growth of the religion market and the advance- ment of religious marketing, which consolidates Christians as a market segment, through the offer of products and services specially designed to meet their religious needs, whether they are consuming goods or leisure and entertainment; 4. greater use of space by evangelicals in institutional politics, with the consequent consolidation of the evangelical bench in the National Congress, articu- lated as the Evangelical Parliamentary Front (FPE), and the expansion of efforts, on the part of some 2 This work refers to evangelicals like all non-Catholic and unorthodox Chris- tians in Brazil. There are a wide variety of typologies designed by scholars of religion. Here we opted for a synthesis based on studies in media and religion developed by Cunha, 2007: historical evangelicals, who arrived in the country through the performance of missionaries from the United States, in the 19th century (congregational, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Luther- ans), and through migratory processes (Anglicans and Lutherans); Pentecostals who arrived in Brazil through missionary work in the United States in the early 20th century (Assembly of God, Christian Congregation of Brazil, Quadrangular Gospel) or who organized around divisions of missionary groups (Deus é Amor, Brasil para Cristo, Cristo Vive, Church of God) or that started churches based on the action of a charismatic leader and privilege more massive proposals and centered on media presence (Universal of the Kingdom of God, International of the Grace of God, Reborn in Christ, among many others).