Novosibirsk Publics “VKontakte” as “Platformed Society”

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the content of the most popular non-specialized Novosibirsk publics in such a social network as “Vkontakte”. The study of the content results in the tracing of three communication strategies. Firstly, publics with active admins who post news on behalf of the group. In terms of content, such publics are most reminiscent of regional media. Secondly, publics, where all participants are enabled to publish the content. They are functioning as a public chats, where people ask questions and receive answers from other subscribers. Thirdly, publics created by developers of new microdistricts. The article examinesaudience characteristics of publics of all three types, such as subscribers (including dynamics for the year), likes, comments, reposts, both average and median values.The author analyze from the point of view of the thematic coverage of posts, rate the main thematic blocks, and identify the place of socio-political issues in structure of the content. The work pays great attention to the intentional orientation of texts, the implementation of various functions of mass communication in them. The article concludes by characterizing the unorganized local practices, through which “weak agents” reproduce the social reality, surrounding them in the texts of new urban media.