Author ORCID Identifier
0009-0006-6274-0030
Abstract
This article examines how digital media frame ecclesiastical issues as identity questions in North Macedonia and Montenegro. The analysis compares two distinct but structurally related cases: the media reception of the recognition and normalization of the status of the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Ohrid Archbishopric in North Macedonia in 2022, and the media reception of the Law on Freedom of Religion and the church processions associated with the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro in 2020. The study employs qualitative content analysis with a framing approach, based on two purposively selected digital media corpora consisting of 20 media texts from North Macedonia and 14 from Montenegro. The analysis identifies six interpretative frames: ecclesiastical-religious, national-identity, state-political, conflictual, normalizing, and identity-mobilizational. The findings suggest that the Macedonian case is predominantly framed through a model of affirmative identity normalization, in which ecclesiastical recognition is represented as historical justice, reconciliation, and confirmation of cultural continuity. By contrast, the Montenegrin case is framed through a conflict-mobilizational model in which church-related legal disputes are linked to statehood, ownership, collective threat, public mobilization, and the defense of religious heritage. Rather than measuring public perception or offering canonical and legal evaluations, the article analyzes how digital media organize public meaning around ecclesiastical questions in post-Yugoslav contexts.
Recommended Citation
Protogjer, Martin
(2026)
"Framing Ecclesiastical Issues as Identity Questions: A Comparative Analysis of Digital Media in North Macedonia and Montenegro,"
Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 46
:
Iss.
7
, Article 3.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55221/2693-2229.2850
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol46/iss7/3