Behind Religious Outreach's Underperformance: A 42% Management Share

A study of Iran's religious outreach system identifies a set of managerial, content-related, social, and audience-focused obstacles that have undermined the impact of religious messaging.

Seyyedah Fatemeh Sadat Kiaei, Arjan Ambassador of the Religion, Philosophy and Thought Service: We all know the functions of religion, what religions came for and with what purpose they lead humanity, what teachings they have and what paths and tools each religion uses. All religions have come to bring people to the path of salvation. They should illuminate what is hidden in man and his nature, put before our eyes the human and theological face of the universe and resurrection, and introduce us to divine and revelatory thoughts. But religion can be present in the life of man and society when its message reaches the right people, connects with their issues and concerns, and forms a way for dialogue between religious teachings and people's daily life, a problem that is referred to as "religious propaganda".

In the tradition of divine religions, guiding people has always been associated with calling and delivering God's message. The divine prophets started their movement to guide the people with a call and then, by talking, teaching, explaining and answering the questions and doubts, they tried to make the divine message understandable and tangible for the people. In the meantime, propaganda emerges as one of the paths of communication between religion and society, whose only purpose is not to convey a set of religious propositions and rulings, and effectiveness is considered one of its conditions, this is where the role of the preacher becomes bold and prominent.

A preacher can be effective in this direction when, in addition to having a correct knowledge of religious teachings, he knows the language and conditions of his audience, sees the current issues of the society, and is able to communicate between religious concepts and the realities of people's lives. For this reason, advertising has both an educational, cultural and social aspect and can be a basis for the formation of dialogue, trust and communication between society and religious institutions.

This issue becomes more complicated in the contemporary period. Today, people receive various messages from different directions and virtual space, social networks and new media have provided access to diverse views. In such a situation, the audience is not just a listener of a message, but he compares, asks questions, gets information about a subject from different sources, and sometimes even before facing the messenger, he has found different answers to his question. As a result, religious propaganda must be able to associate itself with these changes to be more effective.

On the other hand, the historical experience of Islam shows that direct communication with people, understanding social conditions and responding to the real issues of society have always been part of the path of guidance. The Prophet of Islam (pbuh) and Imams of Athar (pbuh) did not limit themselves to the expression of teachings and spoke to them according to the conditions, questions and needs of the audience. Therefore, propaganda can be considered one of the main elements in conveying the religious message and shaping the relationship between religion and society, a relationship whose quality can affect the presence and effectiveness of religious teachings in social life.

From the invitation of the prophets to the social experience of the clergy in Iran

In Iran, after the introduction of Islam, religious scholars and clerics in many historical periods did not only have an educational and religious role, and were recognized as part of the influential social forces. The mosque, pulpit, religious gatherings and direct communication between scholars and people provided a basis for the transmission of religious concepts and at the same time communication with social issues.

This relationship has shown itself in different forms in different historical periods. In the tobacco movement, the clergy was able to turn a social demand into a comprehensive movement by relying on extensive communication with the people. During the Islamic revolution, the network of mosques, clerics and religious assemblies played a significant role in social organization and transmission of the message of the revolution. In fact, religious propaganda, along with the task of transmitting religious teachings, also formed a part of the social communication capacity of the clergy with the people.

However, the conditions of today's society are very different from the past. Today's audience has more diverse media at their disposal, lifestyles have changed, new questions about religion and society have been formed, and a significant part of social communication has been transferred to virtual space. These changes have made the methods that could effectively communicate with the audience in a period, not necessarily have the same function as in the past.

When the issue is not just the lack of funds

In such a situation, the discussion about the effectiveness of religious preaching in Iran is no longer limited to the number of missionaries or their presence in different regions. The problem is broader than the performance of a single person and a set of factors can play a role in distancing the religious message from the audience, from the way of management and policy to missionary training, the presented content, social and cultural conditions and even the audience's own view of religion and missionaries.

In an article written by Yavar Aiwazi, Seyed Morteza Mirtbar and Seyed Mehdi Hosseini entitled "A Pathological Look at the Obstacles to the Effectiveness of the Religious Propaganda System in Iran", it is discussed what factors affect the performance of the preacher, the set of the propagandist system and the obstacles that stand in the way of the effectiveness of the propagandism.

This view is significant because if we consider religious preaching as a communication system, disruption in any part can affect other parts as well. A person who has not received enough training, a content that does not fit the problem of the audience, a management that does not have enough knowledge of new social conditions, or an audience that has become distrustful of religious institutions, each of them can cause problems in a part of this chain.

A problem that starts with management

The findings of this survey show that among the different fields of pathology, management issues have the largest share and about 42% of the identified injuries are in this field. This amount shows that part of the problems of religious preaching cannot be solved simply by advising missionaries or changing the way of speaking, and attention should also be paid to the management and policy structure of preaching.

Policy-making without sufficient scientific and research support, the dominance of traditional views, lack of attention to new communication tools and weakness in planning are among the issues that have been considered in this section. Unbalanced and sometimes unplanned distribution of missionaries, lack of sufficient coordination between institutions active in the field of propaganda, weakness in training and supervision, and lack of mechanisms to receive feedback from the field of propaganda are another part of these problems.

In fact, when different institutions each pursue a part of promotional activities without sufficient coordination, existing capacities may act in isolation instead of being aligned with each other. The result of such a situation can be repetition of activities in some areas, gaps in some other areas, and difficulty in accurately evaluating the performance of the advertising system.

From this point of view, management becomes one of the key points in the effectiveness of advertising, because management decisions can affect the selection and training of the amount, the type of content, the way to communicate with the audience, the use of new media, and even the way of evaluating promotional activities.

27% of injuries are related to the performance of missionaries

After management factors, missionaries' performance has the second share among identified injuries with about 27%. These problems are not limited to the amount of religious knowledge of the preacher and include different dimensions.

In the field of method, the use of reductionist, emotional or low-argument methods can make the religious message unable to communicate sufficiently with the audience who is faced with complex and multi-layered questions. Besides that, some behavioral and moral issues, as well as the weakness in understanding the issues of the society, can affect the audience's image of the message and finally the level of acceptance of the message.

Part of the problem is related to the way some missionaries look at virtual space and new media. In a situation where an important part of people's social life takes place in these spaces, distancing from this arena can increase the distance between the preacher and the audience.

The ability to communicate with different social groups is also very important. Audiences are not the same in terms of age, education, lifestyle, social experience, and type of concerns, and naturally, it is not possible to communicate with all of them with one language and one fixed method. Knowing the audience and choosing the right language for each group is a part of the advertising skill that has become more important in today's conditions.

When the religious message is distant from the problem of the audience

Another part of the problems is related to the message itself and the content that is provided to the audience in the advertising process. A religious message can be communicated when the audience can understand its relationship with their life and see the answers to their problems and concerns in it.

One of the harms that have been noticed in this field is focusing too much on some religious issues and not paying enough attention to a wider range of social and intellectual issues and questions. Today's audience may have questions about family, identity, ethics, justice, lifestyle, social relations, future, cultural developments and the relationship of religion with new issues. If the ad can't see these questions, the possibility of audience distance increases.

The issue of doubts is also included in this framework. People's wide access to information and different views has caused religious doubts and questions to spread in the society in a short period of time. Answering these issues requires accurate, well-reasoned and at the same time comprehensible content, a content that neither deviates from scientific complexity nor loses its connection with the language of the audience.

Even if the management is proper, the agent is trained and the proper content is provided to him, still the advertisement is not done in a vacuum. Every promotional activity is formed in a specific social, cultural and media environment and this environment can affect its result.

The expansion of cultural competitors, lifestyle changes, media developments, and the weakness of the necessary infrastructure for an effective presence in the virtual space are among the factors that have made advertising conditions more difficult. On the other hand, the way religion and spirituality are represented in some media can also affect the audience's view.

The economic and political conditions of society are not separate from this equation. The audience sees religion alongside their real experience of society and may associate some existing problems and failures with religious institutions or structures related to religion. Therefore, missionary activity cannot be indifferent to people's social experience.

An audience that is no longer the audience of the past

Along with management, message, message and social environment, the audience itself is one of the important elements of this communication system. Today's audience is not only the recipient of the message, but in many cases the producer, republisher and critic of the content. He can compare a religious message with dozens of other narrations and comment on it.

In such an environment, a negative attitude towards some missionaries, identity crisis and attributing existing inefficiencies and problems to religion can affect the acceptance of the religious message. Therefore, if advertising is to be able to play an effective role in the relationship between religion and society, knowing the audience should become one of the main components of advertising planning.

Knowing the audience does not mean knowing a few demographic characteristics, but it requires understanding the issues, concerns, language, lived experience and even the type of exposure he has to the media. Without such recognition, content may be very suitable for the producer, but for the audience, it may not be related to the real issue of his life.

The sum of these findings shows that the issue of the effectiveness of religious preaching cannot be reduced to a single factor. The high share of management problems, along with problems related to preachers, content, social conditions and audience, indicates the existence of a continuous problem.

From this point of view, reforming the advertising situation requires more coordination among the institutions active in this field. Having a coordinating structure and avoiding isolated activities can help to better use the available capacities. Besides that, the training of specialized managers in the field of advertising, using the findings of social sciences and psychology, documenting successful and unsuccessful experiences, and modifying the evaluation methods of advertising activities can form a part of the reform path.

In the meantime, the training of missionaries also needs to be reviewed. Today's missionary, in addition to religious knowledge, needs communication skills, knowledge of society, familiarity with new media and the ability to talk with different social groups. An advertisement that can use religious knowledge to face the real issues of society will have more capacity to communicate with the audience.

Return to an old capacity with new tools

The historical experience of Iranian society has shown that the relationship between the clergy and the people can become an important social capacity at different times. But maintaining this capacity in new conditions requires understanding the changes in society and redefining communication methods.

If religious preaching is limited to one-way message transmission, it will face more difficulties in today's complex communication environment. On the other hand, an advertisement that relies on knowing the audience, dialogue, answering, correct use of the media, appropriate content and connection with the real issues of people's lives, can again reduce part of the distance created between the religious message and the audience.