Metropolitan Cornelius on the Internet, Biotechnologies, Scientific and Technological Progress: Media Framing of New Technologies

   The article is devoted to the framing of “new technologies” in public statements by the head of the Russian Orthodox Old‑Rite Church (ROOC), Metropolitan Cornelius. The sources used are messages in the Russian media and materials published on the official website of the ROOC. Data was collected both manually and using one of the most complete and constantly updated databases of media messages, “Medialogia”. Using the optics of SST as a basis, the authors analyze the data corpus based on the four‑part framing model proposed by R. Entman. The study shows that Metropolitan Cornelius frames a number of significant technologies as neutral (for example, communication and information technologies), shifting the emphasis to the motivation and consequences of their use, while leaving others invisible. Negative framing in most cases refers not to the technologies themselves, but to other phenomena or events (for example, globalization), into which technologies are inscribed as constituent elements. In contrast to the “new” ones, “advanced technologies” are framed by the religious leader as part of the history and culture of the Old Believers.

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