Russian Social Network Research Articles

Dynamics and modification of the ideological discourse of online radical Salafi communities

The article considers the problem of the discursive representation of online Salafi communities in Russian social networks, which comes as a seldom-studied but rather relevant issue. Despite the increasing restrictions in the Russian-speaking Internet regarding extremist materials and radical content, radical Salafi communities have adapted their discourse and managed to maintain their presence on social networks. The purpose of the study is to identify the most active radical Salafi communities on VKontakte and to find out modifi cation of Salafi discourse during the period between the 2023 and 2024 compared with the results of the previous research. The empirical base of the study is represented with the data (posts and network metrics reflecting the popularity of the content) from almost two dozen online communities. The study classifies Salafi communities into three types according to the degree of content radicalism. It discovers the main characteristic narratives and diff erences in the Salafi communities’ discourse.

Distort, post, repeat: Laundering antisemitism on "cliquey networks" during COVID-19.

Today, in the age of the internet, during recent epidemics such as H1N1, Ebola and Covid-19, it is striking to see how old accusatory scripts are circulated and perpetuated via social media, which serve as new channels for discrimination and blame directed at traditional figures who have been scapegoated at different moments in the history of European epidemics. The article shows how the laundering of information into a cliquey network takes empirical shape during a health crisis. We do so by focusing on VKontakte, a Russian social network similar to Facebook and the 15th largest website in the world in terms of traffic. Using an ethnographic approach to social media, we show how borderline information from an open and easily accessible website is reappropriated, made explicit, and transformed into legally prohibited hate content. It also documents the ability of conspiracy theorists to use the full range of discourse production channels in a country-in this case France-that has very strict laws on hate speech, including that published on social networks. These laws are circumvented by anti-Semitic communities that spread false information in marginal, open and legal networks, thus avoiding legal proceedings.

Lenin, Putin, and Rage Guy: Internet memes in the discourse of a Russian far-right community

ABSTRACT The article addresses Internet memes’ usage in Russian far-right discourse, seeking to evaluate how it corresponds with the basic roles of memes in political communication and the extent to which the Russian far-right memetic vernacular is universally translatable. The article uses qualitative content analysis and multimodal discourse analysis of the “Right-Wing Memes” community on the Russian social networking site Vkontakte. The Russian far-right builds its social identity by filling the floating signifiers of the “left-wing,” “migrants,” and “Russian national state” with relevant meanings through the memetic means of visual humor, bitter irony, and parallel comparison. These construct the in- and out-groups, convey the ideological message, and give voice to the groups excluded from the mainstream. However, although the Russian far-right employs globalized memetic tropes, the content is mainly country-specific, which, together with the language barrier, hinders the formation of a universal far-right memetic discourse.

Methodology for extracting narratives from social media big data

Purpose: of the article is to present the experience in developing and testing the methodology for extracting a system of narratives on a socially significant phenomenon from authentic social network big data (using the example of narratives about COVID-19 vaccination in the Russian social network VKontakte during the pandemic).Methods: of automated data analysis were used by the tools of the PolyAnalyst analytical platform: topic modeling (PLSA method), text indexing algorithms with the sentence identification stage, clustering, data aggregation, data normalization, calculation of a quantitative index. The calculation of the measure of proximity of keywords using the Python, partial manual markup and data validation were also carried out.Results: 4.5 million messages relevant to the topic of COVID-19 vaccination published in VKontakte from 01.01.2020 to 01.03.2023 were reduced to 237 stable narratives. A popularity index was calculated for each narrative. For example, the following narrative turned out to be the most popular: “Employers put pressure on people to get vaccinated” (it was supported by 76,118 texts). As a result of the study, a dataset was obtained, including 237 narratives.Conclusions and Relevance: the developed toolkit is universal: the methodology can be adapted to any relevant topic, requiring only adjustments to the input parameters of thematic modeling. The obtained dataset is planned to be introduced into scientific circulation as an up-to-date material for studying public opinion on vaccination in Russia. The results contribute to international research on public opinion and communication in crises and can serve as a basis for practical actions aimed at improving the quality of public communications and decision-making at all levels of government.

Analysis of Profiles of Supporters of Conspiracy Narratives about Vaccination Against COVID-19 on a Social Network

The article analyzes the socio-demographic characteristics and value-worldview self-positioning of the distributors of conspiracy narratives (“conspiracy theories”) about vaccination against COVID-19 on the Russian social network “VK”. The research material consists of 33,674 profiles of VK users who published at least two messages during the pandemic that explicate the stated narrative. The collection and analysis of the material was carried out using big data analysis technologies. The purpose of the study is to determine whether it is possible to identify typical socio-demographic and ideological traits of anti-vaccer conspiracy theorists, which to a certain extent explain their penchant for conspiracy thinking. The results obtained refute the marginal dominance of conspiracy theorists in a pandemic situation. Versions popular in the scientific literature about the predominance of insufficiently educated people among “conspiracy theorists”, or the elderly as more gullible, or women as more suggestible, or residents of villages and small provincial towns as more conservative, etc. are not confirmed by the large-scale empirical studies of large user data. The results of the study may be useful for developing countermeasures and strategies to address public mistrust of institutions and official trends in public health, in particular vaccination policies. The traditional focus on information and educational measures (explanations about the dangers of the disease and the benefits of the vaccine) seems to be ineffective in the context of the emergence of value systems, cognitive distortions, general socio-political tension and other reasons that are still awaiting serious study.

Legal Challenges Surrounding Participation of Big Tech Companies in the Russian Social Networking Market

Legal Challenges Surrounding Participation of Big Tech Companies in the Russian Social Networking Market

Current State and Prospects of Development of the Self-Employed Market

Relevance. The ongoing transformational processes of economic systems, the development of IT technologies, communications, and cryptogenologies contribute to the development of innovative forms of labor organization and their types. There is a revaluation of the cost of labor, a change in the conditions of its employment, the structure of the labor market is changing due to non-standard forms of employment and employment, respectively, all this has a significant impact not only on the economic, but also on the social component of society. It should be noted that one of the most widespread and dynamically developing forms of employment in the labor market today is "self-employment", which requires in-depth study in the context of global changes. The purpose is the study involves an analysis of the current situation of non-standard forms of employment, in particular the category of "self-employment". Objectives: to consider the main trends in the self-employed labor market; to identify factors contributing to the rapid growth of the number of self-employed. Methodology: logical and systematic analysis of information sources in the field of self-employment development; expert opinion and personal observations; content analysis of Russian social networks. Results: an assessment of the impact of the digital economy on the development of the labor market, changes in its structure, forms of employment is given, a range of problems and opportunities related to state employment assistance is outlined. Conclusions. Current trends and future prospects for employment development in the context of labor market transformation are associated with an increase in the number of self-employed both abroad and in the Russian Federation. And the ongoing transformations significantly affect the change in the structure of labor relations and their digitalization. Therefore, in order to ensure positive dynamics in the labor market, it is necessary to integrate research on self-employment in economics, labor law, sociology and psychology.

Туризм как форма актуализации семейных ценностей в России

Целью исследования является анализ процессов развития семейного туризма в России как актуальной формы сохранения и упрочения традиционных духовно-нравственных ценностей. Использованы результаты научных изысканий и энциклопедические труды, посвященные истории отечественного туризма и вопросам аксиологии семьи, а также документы органов государственной власти и материалы из социальных сетей. Представлена история становления семейных путешествий в XIX в., рассмотрен опыт развития семейных путешествий в СССР, охарактеризовано современное состояние семейного туризма в России. Проанализированы государственные программы и общественные инициативы поддержки семейных путешествий. Развитие семейного туризма изучено на конкретных примерах, связанных с информационно-просветительной деятельностью российских пользователей социальных сетей. Выявлены факторы развития семейных путешествий в России, сформулированы рекомендации, относящиеся к вопросам совершенствования их организации и популяризации. The aim of the study is to analyze the processes of development of family tourism in Russia as a relevant form of preserving and strengthening traditional spiritual and moral values. The results of scientific research and encyclopedic works on the history of domestic tourism and issues of family axiology, as well as documents from government bodies and materials from social networks were used. Family tourism in the form of family travel is for the first time considered as part of the organizational and methodological system for the development of domestic tourism in Russia. The research employed a systemic approach in combination with classical methods of historical research, as well as techniques of contextual analysis and text interpretation. Family travel is presented as a stable phenomenon that appeared in Russia back in the 19th century. As an example reflecting the connection with historical tradition, the article considers the large-scale modern project Imperial Route, uniting places of memory associated with the history of the Romanov family. The systemic nature of family tourism, which became widespread during the Soviet period and became one of the foundations for strengthening traditional values in modern Russia, is emphasized. Particular attention is paid to the pedagogical potential of family tourism as one of the means of educating children, adolescents and young people in general. It is noted that parents’ positive attitudes towards school trips help to increase children’s interest in the chosen activity, increasing their personal discipline and responsibility. Examples of family travel of Russian citizens along foreign tourist routes - to individual countries and around the world – are analyzed. The initiative informational and educational activities of Russian social network users related to the popularization of family tourism are considered. Consistent measures to support family tourism taken by the state and reflected in the decrees of the President of Russia and the Government of the Russian Federation are studied. The authors conclude that the factors for the development of family tourism in Russia are (1) the introduction into force of federal-level strategic documents that determine the development of tourism and serve to strengthen traditional Russian spiritual and moral values, and (2) the activities of public organizations and authorities to develop new social projects related to family tourism. The authors proposed to create a scientifically based strategic document that sets the organizational conditions for the implementation of this form of tourism activity.

Online Communities as a Form of Organizing Narrative Content about SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination: Big Data Analysis

Distrust of vaccines is one of the key problems of modern healthcare both in Russia and abroad. Mass vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 provoked a large number of social media narratives. Online communities play an important role in the formation and dissemination of narratives. The complex system of numerous online platforms for discussing the topic of vaccination on a social network deserves a special description.
 The purpose of the study is to construct a typology of all significant communities of the popular Russian social network “VKontakte” that publish content on the topic of vaccination against COVID-19 (01/01/2020 – 03/01/2023) and describe it in terms of lobbied narratives. Big data collection and analysis methods were used, as well as narrative analysis. Of the 131,119 communities that published at least one vaccination message during the study period, 691 were selected based on self-positioning criteria (name, description) and/or the number of SARS‑CoV-2 vaccination messages above the established threshold. 14 thematic categories of communities have been identified, the self-positioning of which allows reconstructing narratives about forced vaccination and the right to choose; health care and debate about the benefits/effectiveness of vaccination; conspiracy theories; beneficiaries and trust in the authorities; pseudoscience, vaccination myths and scientific knowledge; childcare and parental rights; contrasting medical science with religious beliefs.
 Narratives formed by online communities signify a pronounced polarization of opinions in the digital society regarding SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. The “pro-waxer” and “anti-vaxxer” narratives are reconstructed. Quantitatively “anti-vaxxer” communities significantly predominate over “pro-waxer” ones.

The discourse of right-wing radicals in online communities (using the example of the VK social network)

The object of the study are discourses that are broadcast by supporters of right-wing radical ideology in the relevant communities in the largest Russian social network VKontakte. The study of the discourse of right-wing radicals is an urgent topic of scientific and practical research in modern socio-political conditions. The study of the discourses of right-wing radicals helps to better understand the value-ideological attitudes of representatives of this group of political extremists and to reveal the rhetorical techniques and practices that they exploit in the process of mobilizing supporters. The analysis of the discourses of right-wing radicals in social media is especially relevant, since in the conditions of a digital society, the Internet is becoming the leading source of information for a significant part of the population. Four thematic types of discourses are identified – racist, anti-Soviet, anti-Semitic and social-populist discourses. Racist discourse is characteristic of the communities of the "new" and "alternative" right, while supporters of the "old", imperial right actively exploit the theme of anti-Soviet discourse. Anti-Semitic and social-populist discourses are rather poorly represented in the communities selected for the study. With the help of PolyAnalist software, six clusters of terms have been identified based on the occurrence in texts in right-wing radical communities: news, value, anti-migrant, historical, socio-economic. The analysis of the frequency of mentioning words in negative tonality and positive tonality in the posts of right-wing communities is carried out. There are two major objects to which the negative discourse is directed: the modern political regime in the Russian Federation and the Soviet period.

Low Civility and High Incivility in Russian Online Deliberation

One of the most studied fields in deliberative research is (in)civility in Internet-based political discussions on issues of common concern. Uncivil behaviour demonstrated by participants in online communication has various forms and negative effects on the process and outcomes of e-deliberation as well as on deliberators’ reactions and attitudes, which have been predominantly investigated in Western democracies. However, this issue has been poorly covered in the countries with less stable democratic traditions and values. This paper explores speech culture with a focus on civility and incivility in Russian political conversations conducted on Russian social media. The authors analyse mass-scale web political discussions on a polarising issue of the court sentence of the politician Alexei Navalny (2021), taking one of the most popular Russian social networks VKontakte. For this study, scholars use discourse analysis based on the works on deliberative democracy proposed by J. Habermas (1996). They conclude that Russian political speech regarding Navalny’s sentence and conducted on the VKontakte social media platform can be characterised by a great extent of uncivil speech unbalanced by a low extent of civil speech. The conversations are not oriented towards mutual recognition or reaching a consensus, as participants are often distracted from the main issue being discussed, and turn to interpersonal topics instead.

Medical scientific conferences and social networks: How Russian physicians share professional knowledge?

BACKGROUND: Physicians who attend international conferences cover their content on social media. Such posts generate an active response and discussion in the comments involving other physicians. Attending all conferences when they are held simultaneously is impossible; therefore, brief communications that capture the essence of a missed presentation are in demand, generate an immediate response, and quickly raise awareness of new clinical research and scientific data. This phenomenon was not studied in Russia. However, the posts were analyzed and the activity and interest among Russian physicians were evident.
 AIM: To investigate how frequently Russian physicians use available social networks to share information from scientific conferences with their colleagues.
 METHODS: The search for posts for the last 412 months in Russian social networks such as VKontakte (vk.com), VrachiRF (vrachirf.ru), and Doctor na rabote (doktornarabote.ru) by report, conference, congress, symposium, and medical conference keywords was conducted. The selected recordings were classified into 6 categories (conference announcements; reports of past conferences without disclosing the content; professional journalistic reports, disclosing the content; reports from physicians, disclosing the content; videos of reports with disclosure; videos of reports without disclosure) and counted (1373 posts in total). However, the category Reports from physicians revealing the content of some selected parts of the report and facts and ideas presented in the report was given special attention due to useful information from the conferences and a reason to discuss in the comments. In addition, relevant studies by authors from other countries were analyzed and compared with our results.
 RESULTS: A total of 1,373 posts (searched by keywords), of which 65 were in the category Reports from physicians revealing the content of some selected parts of the report and facts and ideas presented in the report was reviewed. The number of such posts is limited; however, this information is of interest to physicians (high number of views and dozens of comments). By comparison, the number of such messages in other countries may reach into the hundreds at a single conference alone. Based on foreign experience, the discussion of the reports on social networks helps both to spread new knowledge and facilitate joint learning and interaction among physicians, which contributes to the generation of useful material that passed peer review. Possible reasons for the low number of such posts on Russian social networks are as follows: mostly messages and discussions take place on professional social networks (VrachiRF and Doctor na rabote), foreign organizers actively encourage participants to use social networks with conference hashtags, and the multimillion-speaking English-speaking audience encourages authors to write more posts with their feedback.
 CONCLUSIONS: Physicians quite rarely share facts presented at Russian scientific medical conferences on Russian social networks. However, users of social networks show considerable interest and actively discuss such posts. The study of this phenomenon will enable the assessment and effective use of its educational potential.

Language Suggestion in Online Advertising of Figure Skating Ice Shows

The article is devoted to the problem of latent verbal influence on the attitudes of the addressee in the advertising sports discourse. The purpose of the work is to identify linguistic means that realize the suggestive potential in the advertising of figure skating ice shows. The analysis of media texts posted in the Russian social network “VKontakte” was carried out. 124 advertising texts for 2021—2023 were analyzed Methods of discursive and communicative-pragmatic analysis, content analysis, descriptive method were used. It has been established that the verbal component of the considered advertising texts in the social network “VKontakte” is characterized by a small volume, clear logical and compositional structuring, linguistic minimalism, substantiveness, expansion of the nominative case, as a result of which the range of linguistic means of suggestion used is limited. These include allusive anthroponyms (participate in the formation of 84% of advertising media texts), evaluative vocabulary (42 %), bifunctional declarative-exclamatory sentences (37 %), vocative sentences (21 %). It is concluded that the listed units reveal their suggestive potential by replacing rational justification with emotional argumentation; activation of different types of associations; the affective component of the impact, determined by the presence of sympathy specifically for domestic figure skaters; the effect of stereotypes of personalities and the background knowledge of the addressee.

Online mobilisation strategies: Increasing political participation in semi-authoritarian regimes

ABSTRACT Although the importance of weaker and no ties for political-information diffusion was established, previous research did not focus on their primary role in mobilization into low-cost political activities. This study examines online mobilization strategies that increase e-petition signing in semi-authoritarian regimes. The research question is approached by assessing mobilization carried out on Twitter, where communication takes place via weaker ties or no ties, and the Russian social networking service VKontakte, characterized by comparatively stronger ties. To examine how the benefits of participation affect the effectiveness of different mobilization steps, participation on the two biggest e-petitioning platforms in Russia, the Russian public initiative and Change.org, is compared. The significance of the information, persuasion and support effects on the petition signing is tested through linear regression and Bayesian network analyses. The results show that irrespective of the benefits of participation, information-sharing is the most important step for online recruitment into low-cost political activities. Meanwhile, persuasion and social support have no direct impact on e-petition signing.

Формирование положительного образа Китая в социальной сети «ВКонтакте» через призму дискурс-анализа (в период пандемии Covid-19)

The article deals with issues related to modern communication studies. Particular attention is drawn to the factors that influence the creation of a particular image (in particular, the image of China) by means of language. Taking into account the influence of the media text on public opinion and the formation of a certain vision of the image of the country, both lexical, grammatical, and syntactic language possibilities are analyzed. Based on the understanding of today's features of communication associated with the expansion of the information field due to the widespread use of Internet technologies, social networks stand out as a tool for shaping public opinion and a "sounding" response to the most significant events not only on a national scale, but also on a global scale. The COVID-19 pandemic is becoming such an event that has affected all countries without exception. In the context of this problem, the authors propose to analyze a large amount of material collected in the Russian social network VKontakte (VK). The choice of VK is substantiated due to the great popularity among Chinese users, recognition, wide distribution as the only “recognizable” Russian social network. Describes the method of discourse analysis and the relevance of its application for this study. The paper presents an overview of the works of Russian and foreign scientists devoted to the study of discourse. Based on the regularities identified from the discourse analysis, a classification of "evaluative" means is proposed, based on semantic and word-formation approaches. The conclusion is made about the dynamics of the formation of a positive image of China in the social and communicative context of the Russian-speaking community.

Self-employed under sanctions, problems and development trends

The article presents an analysis of the results of an original study carried out by the method of content analysis of Russian social networks and devoted to the perception of the situation of the self-employed under sanctions, problems and development trends. The dynamics of interest in specific problems during 2022 grew as follows: from legal problems to problems of self-development, relationships with companies in crisis, state support, to understanding permitted activities and new opportunities in crisis. Among the prospects for further development of self-employment in the Russian Federation are the following: self-development, collective help and tips (life hacks), cooperation with companies, state support, Internet sites. Based on the analysis of the results of the study, it can be assumed that certain types of promising social partnerships between the self-employed, the state and business structures are already being formed in the field of employment.

ПРОШЛОЕ КАК РЕФЛЕКСИЯ ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОГО НАСТОЯЩЕГО: М.С. ГОРБАЧЕВ В ПОМЕРТНЫХ КОММЕНТАРИЯХ РОССИЙСКОЙ ОНЛАЙН-АУДИТОРИИ

The article analyzes the comments of users of Russian social networks as a mass reaction to the official announcement of the Mikhail Gorbachev’s death (the First Russian Television Channel: August 31, 2022) The dataset was collected using the Semantic Force program. Empirical base: 2,528 comments to reposts on the channels vk.com, t.me, youtube.com, zen.yandex.ru, livejournal.com, 1sn.ru, otvet.mail.ru, odnoklassniki.ru. The simultaneous reaction to the past national leader death provides information about the current state of mass consciousness in line with the sociology of mass communication and the sociology of memory. Selection of units for lexical-semantic analysis of comments: nominations of a politician (136 non-repeating units). The comments are the binary opposition of supporters and opponents politician. Comments with a neutral tone were not found in the dataset.

Репрезентация концепта «труд» в русской языковой картине мира на материале социальных сетей периода пандемии СОVID-19

The article presents an approach to studying the concept of “Labor” in social networks during the COVID-19 pandemic using the example of the Russian social network “VKontakte” involving elements of background comparison with the Chinese social network “Sina Weibo”. The purpose of the study is to determine the cognitive characteristics of the concept of “Labor” during the COVID-19 pandemic against the background of the Chinese concept 劳动. The research is aimed at studying changes in the symbolic component of the content of the “Labor” concept during the pandemic. The scientific novelty lies in conducting a multidimensional analysis of the components of this concept when representing it in contexts from social networks and in describing its modern relevant features.

Social issues of rural areas: social media open data analysis

This article offers a new approach to study social issues in Russian rural settlements. Our approach is based on the analysis of digital footprints left by the rural population in the largest Russian social network VKontakte (VK). Our approach is based on the social media data and two methods of the digital analysis – big data and data mining. For this study we used negative-sounding messages and posts published in some communities of rural settlements from 10 (out of 85) Russian regions. We used PolyAnalyst software for the automatic analysis of such messages to identify 10 groups of issues deteriorating quality of life in those rural settlements. These issues include those of the housing and utilities infrastructure, of the capital improvement and of the transportation infrastructure; environmental issues, issues with availability and poor quality of the telecommunication and banking infrastructure; healthcare and education issues; safety issues; various economic issues; issues related to homeless and neglected animals (dogs); alcohol abuse and inefficiency of the authorities in rural settlements.

Nationalism, Purity, and Danger: “Cross-Border Intimacy” in Russian Digital Media

The article explores narratives of the “cross-border intimacy” in Russian-language digital media. The text arrays generated by migrants, representatives of the host community, and professional journalists in digital media are analyzed. We identified and compared the meanings that are given to marriages between migrants and “locals”. Texts were selected from 10 of the most quoted Russian Internet media, city public sites of the largest Russian social network Vkontakte, Internet forums on combinations of the keywords “migrant”, “marriage”, “married”, and “married”, as well as ethno-chronyms, that is, immigrants from the main donor countries to the Russian Federation. Qualitative content analysis has become a research tool. It has been established that migrants and representatives of the host community are equally involved in the production of values of cross-border proximity whose position is broadcast by professional media, especially the Russian bureaucracy. All three groups of the senders of statements on social networks discussing cross-border proximity reproduce the rhetoric of “purity” and “danger” in different forms. This rhetoric is similar to the description of objects that fall out of conventional social categories presented in the works of M. Douglas. In digital media, cross-border intimacy is seen as an existential threat to the integrity of an imaginary community, often metaphorically referred to as a female body. Physical contact with a “stranger”, such as “our” woman with a “stranger” man, is first of all considered as a contagious rite, a result of which the “dirt” peculiar to the “stranger” is transmitted to the imaginary community as a whole. People who broadcast this narrative make claims to the role of “defenders” of an imaginary community from “unconventional” contacts between “their own” and “strangers”. The narrative of “protection from dirt” is used as a way to legitimize their own power by men, bureaucrats, and parents. We found a watershed between the professional and social media. This watershed lies in the fact that the narrative about the need to keep the “purity” of an imaginary community is constantly challenged in social media, unlike professional ones. Love and freedom of individual choice are placed above the inviolability of the boundaries of imaginary communities, thus legitimizing cross-border closeness. The analysis of the material allowed us to put the hypothesis forward that social media contributes to the destruction and delegitimization of the nationalist narrative dominating in professional media. This is primarily used by social groups, in respect of which the power legitimized by the narrative of “purity” is applied; such groups are formed primarily by women, as well as representatives of the “second generation” of migrants.