Benedict the Bifurcated: Secular and Sacred Framing of the Pope and Turkey

Abstract

We contend that the unique audience of the Turkish Daily News (TDN), a national English language daily newspaper in Turkey, drove the newspaper's framing of its coverage of the pope's Regensburg comments and subsequent visit to Turkey. We claim the TDN used three frames that helped readers make sense of and balance the sacred and secular tensions surrounding Pope Benedict and his visit: 1) an emphasis on the pope's role as a political official over his role as a religious leader; 2) an emphasis on the political invitation to visit Turkey over the religious invitation; and 3) a narrative that enfolds the multi-faceted reasons for the pope's visit into the story of a religious leader previously unsupportive of Turkey's political aspirations maturing into a political leader who supports both Turkey and inter-faith dialogue. The TDN's framing of the papal crisis is consistent with the national identity and cultural values of the newspaper's readers and, as such, illustrates how framing is an analytic tool that helps us better understand the ways in which the media reflect and reinforce the relationship between government, audience, and religious culture.

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