Digital communication of the Bank of Russia in social media

Abstract

The subject of this study is digital communication of the Bank of Russia in social media. The relevance of the article is determined by the role and significance of modern digital communication channels in everyday life and the potential for their use in ongoing monetary policy. The authors systematize and summarize scientific articles devoted to the connection between effective communication and monetary policy pursued by central banks. The article notes that successful central bank communication should make monetary policy more predictable and market expectations about future rates more accurate. The purpose of the current article is to assess the readability of digital materials published by the Bank of Russia on official social networks and instant messengers. To assess the readability of digital publications, the authors identify two large audience groups: professional and non-professional. As a text analysis method, the authors rely on syntactic and lexical methods and use the Flesch-Kincaid index and Fog-Index as indicators of text readability. The authors presented the key channels and communication tools of central banks, and also highlighted the main channels of digital communication of the Bank of Russia: the Bank of Russia website, social media and the Bank of Russia application “Central Bank Online”. Each of the channels has both direct and indirect affiliation. The results of the direct affiliation channel of social media and the website emphasize the positive dynamics of readability indices – materials published on social networks by the Bank of Russia become clearer to a wider audience segment. However, most publications still require specialized training in economics and finance to fully understand the information. Thus, in communication on social networks, the Bank of Russia’s focus is on reaching a non-professional audience in order to increase transparency and the level of trust in its monetary policy.