Perception is All That Matters: A Study of Media Use and the Journalist’s Perspective on the Ethnic Divide in North Macedonian and Why It Matters

1 Association of Journalists of Macedonia. (2023). Media freedom in North Macedonia: Fragile progress – Fact-finding press freedom mission report. Association of Journalists of Macedonia. https://znm.org.mk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/EN-Fact-Finding-PFM-Report-251023-web.pdf. Search in Google Scholar

2 Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. “About BIRN,” https://birn.eu.com/about-birn/. Retrieved on April 2, 2025. Search in Google Scholar

3 Cox, J. B. (2021). Feature writing and reporting: Journalism in the digital age. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071907184. Search in Google Scholar

4 BBC News Online. “North Macedonia Media Guides” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17551488. Retrieved on April 2, 2025. Search in Google Scholar

5 Feldman, L., Wojcieszak, M., Stroud, N. J., & Bimber, B. (2018). Explaining media choice: The role of issue-specific engagement in predicting interest-based and partisan selectivity. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 62(1), 109–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2017.1375502. Search in Google Scholar

6 Hallin, D. C. and Mancini, P. 2007. Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press. Search in Google Scholar

7 Investigative Reporting Lab. “What is IRL?” https://irl.mk/about-us_/. Retrieved on April 2, 2025. Search in Google Scholar

8 IPU Parline Global data on national parliaments. (n.d.). North Macedonia: Assembly of the Republic. https://data.ipu.org/parliament/MK/MK-LC01/election/MK-LC01-E20240508/. Retrieved on April 2, 2025. Search in Google Scholar

9 Juarez Miro, C. (2023). “Everything is Biased”: Populist Supporters’ Folk Theories of Journalism. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 30(1), 63-82. https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612231197617 (Original work published 2025). Search in Google Scholar

10 Mason, L. (2018). Uncivil Agreement: How politics became our identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Search in Google Scholar

11 Moffitt, B. 2016. The Global Rise of Populism: Performance, Political Style and Representation. California: Stanford University Press. Search in Google Scholar

12 Mos, M., & Macedo Piovezan, I. (2024). Leadership in international populism: How Viktor Orbán’s Hungary shows the way. New Perspectives, 32(4), 329-346. https://doi.org/10.1177/2336825X241282599 (Original work published 2024). Search in Google Scholar

13 Nelson, J. L., & Lewis, S. C. (2021). Only “sheep” trust journalists? How citizens’ self-perceptions shape their approach to news. New Media & Society, 25(7), 1522-1541. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211018160 (Original work published 2023). Search in Google Scholar

14 Panievsky, A., David, Y., Gidron, N., & Sheffer, L. (2024). Imagined Journalists: New Framework for Studying Media–Audiences Relationship in Populist Times. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 30(1), 38-62. https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612241231541 (Original work published 2025). Search in Google Scholar

15 Panievsky, A. (2021). The Strategic Bias: How Journalists Respond to Antimedia Populism. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 27(4), 808-826. https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612211022656 (Original work published 2022). Search in Google Scholar

16 Pepeljugoski, V., Manasiev, A., and Janevska, E. (2023): Journalists’ rights, Freedom of Expression and Media Independence in North Macedonia-2023 Metadata Report. Association of Journalists of Macedonia. https://znm.org.mk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/EN-MetaData-Report-131223-web.pdf. Retrieved on April 2, 2025. Search in Google Scholar

17 Piacentini, A. 2020. Ethnonationality’s Evolution in Bosnia Herzegovina and Macedonia: Politics, Institutions and Intergenerational Dis-continuities. Switzerland: Palgrave MacMillan. DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39189-8. Search in Google Scholar

18 Péthő, A. (2025). Trump’s attempts to muzzle the press look familiar. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/03/trumps-press-freedom-hungary-orban/682060/. Retrieve on March 30, 2025. Search in Google Scholar

19 Rutjens, B., & Brandt, M. (Eds.). (2018). Belief Systems and the Perception of Reality (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315114903. Search in Google Scholar

20 Saldaña, J. (2011). Fundamentals of Qualitative Research: Understanding Qualitative Research. New York: Oxford University Press. Search in Google Scholar

21 Singer, P. W., & Brooking, E. T. (2019). Likewar: The weaponization of social media. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Search in Google Scholar

22 Strömbäck, J., Wikforss, Å., Glüer, K., Lindholm, T., & Oscarsson, H. (2022). Knowledge resistance in high-choice information environments (p. 328). London: Taylor & Francis. DOI: 10.4324/9781003111474. Search in Google Scholar

23 Stroud, NJ. (2010). Polarization and Partisan Selective Exposure. Journal of Communication, 60 (3), 556-576. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2010.01497.x. Search in Google Scholar

24 Treneska, J., Milevski, T., Janev, G.H., & Sofeska, A. (2024). Handbook on 2024 Parliamentary Elections in the Republic of North Macedonia. Konrad Adenauer Foundation and Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis.” https://www.kas.de/documents/281657/281706/Belegexemplar+2024+Handbook+on+2024+Parliamentary+Elections+ENG+version.pdf/62246af3-69f2-047c-1c76-68debdfb9327?version=1.0&t=1715692413519. Retrieved on April 2, 2025. Search in Google Scholar

25 U.S. Census Bureau, “International Database,” https://www.census.gov/data-tools/demo/idb/#/dashboard?dashboard_page=country&COUNTRY_YR_ANIM=2025&CCODE_SINGLE=MK&subnat_map_admin=ADM1&CCODE=MK&menu=countryViz&COUNTRY_YEAR=2025, accessed on date April 2, 2025. Search in Google Scholar