Russian Twitter as an Interpretation and Agenda-Setting Tool

Abstract

The article examines the specifics of the Russian Twitter communication space from the perspective of the agenda-setting theory by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw. Various topics’ blogs are analyzed to identify the communication features of Twitter interaction with external communication channels and information platforms. The authors apply semantic and event analysis to consider the main methods of Twitter influence on the external communication environment, and provide the interpretation of the events in the external environment within social network community. Based on this analysis the authors conclude concludes about the role of Twitter as one of the news feeds interpretive aggregators from the external communication space, which transforms meanings and creates its own in the framework of influencing the audience, and consider further prospects for researching the Twitter media environment to identify its interrelations with the communication environment.