Social Network VKontakte Research Articles

Socio-network group formation in the context of evaluating the national projects implementation

This article presents the results of an online research of socio-network group formation within the of national projects’ implementation. By socio-network group formation, we mean the activation and organisation of information and communication interaction of users of online social networks in the context of discussing specific regional problems and developing constructive solutions to solve them.The database of posts and comments collected from the social network Vkontakte was the empirical basis of the study. The data was collected from 4 most relevant national projects: “Healthcare”, “Housing and urban environment”, “Safe and high-quality highways” and “Education” in 12 regions of the Russian Federation. These projects have been selected according to their socio-cultural modernisation level.The study has found that each region, according to its socio-cultural modernisation level, has its nature of discussion and solving existing problems, socio-network group formation. In all regions, there is a low level of population satisfaction of projects’ implementation and the specific regional problems solutions. The most pressing problems and barriers specific to each of the national projects have been identified. It has been noted that in most of communities, there is either no feedback on the population complaints or this feedback has the formal replies form that do not lead to real actions by the problem solving actors. National project realisers consider the population only as a recipient, but not as a problem-solving actor (partner). The information posted in official publics is most often declarative in nature.It has been concluded about the low level of development of regional and municipal administration systems, and the weak understanding of local problems and needs by the federal center.

Psychological examination of the signs of extremism in the users’ social network profiles

This article is dedicated to determination of the psychological signs of extremism in the information posted by users in social networks. The object of this research is the semantic content of a social network profile. The subject of this research is the evidence of proclivity for extremism. The relevance of this research is substantiated by the need to detect materials and people who incite social, ethnic, national, political, racial and religious hostility, as well as promote extremist views on the Internet. The goal is to determine the signs of propensity for extremism based on the social network profile. The article employs expert analysis for revealing semantic content of profiles in the social network VKontakte; content analysis for studying the materials of profiles in the social network Vkontakte; methods of statistical analysis, such as factor analysis of the selected signs of extremist personality and cluster analysis of profiles. The acquired results allow formulating the criteria for identification of individuals with extremist orientation via analyzing user profiles in the social networks, as well as determining the extremist-oriented content on the Internet, and promptly responding the law enforcement agencies to the threat of antisocial behavior on the Internet platforms. The developed set of the signs of extremism allows carrying out preventive work among youth, indicating the main manifestations of “hazardous” Internet content for parents and pedagogues, as well as teenagers themselves.

Функции диалектной лексики в интернет-коммуникации

The article analyzes the functioning of the Russian dialect vocabulary in modern discursive practices. The aim of the article is to determine the functions of dialect vocabulary in Internet communication. The relevance of the article lies in the need to study modern processes in Internet communication, the definition of trends in the development of language and speech, as well as the role of dialect vocabulary in the formation of the Russian-language communicative sphere. The novelty of the research lies in addressing the problem of discursive and functional heterogeneity of the language of the Internet, identifying zones and factors of such heterogeneity, systematizing functions of dialect words determined by the specifics of internet communication. The materials of the research include 80 text comments selected from the social network VKontakte and containing dialect lexemes belonging to the lexicalthematic group “Person”. Lexical elements were selected from the Vershinino Dictionary and include lexemes characterizing a person by social status, character, naming the features of human behavior and actions performed by a person. The research employed the descriptive method implemented by the methods of contextual analysis, systematization and classification of material. The method of partial sampling was used to collect the material. The first stage of the research described the functions of dialect vocabulary in different types of texts and discourses. At the second stage the features of the Internet as a source of material for linguistic analysis were characterized, including: accessibility, anonymity, democracy and equal positions of communicants. The third stage involved the selection of dialect material from the dictionary and the collection of comments from the social network VKontakte. The fourth stage identified the functions of the dialect word in internet communication: emotional-expressive, nominative, stylistic, voluntative, characterizing, invective, identifying functions, the function of addressing. It was determined that the allocation of the functions of dialect vocabulary varies depending on the criteria underlying classifications authors propose, depends on the subject and sphere of functioning of the text materials, their goals. The article proves that social networks make it possible to determine the functions of dialect elements, their lexical semantics, local connotations and areas.

Выявление признаков информационных операций на основе анализа начальной частоты публикации дубликатов

Analyzed the information flows of destructive content in the social network VKontakte and revealed a high initial frequency of publication of clear duplicates as a certain common property inherent in information operations and proposed to use this property as a sign of information operations.

РАДИКАЛЬНЫЙ ФЕМИННЫЙ И МАСКУЛИННЫЙ МЕДИАДИСКУРС В АСПЕКТЕ ЛИНГВОБЕЗОПАСНОСТИ

This article examines the impact of radical gender media discourse and its substantive value attitudes on social media users. The main criterion is determined for classifying these discourses as being radical, as the manifestation of hatred as an underlying principle. The authors outline the reasons for the radicalization of the feminine and masculine media discourse. Each media discourse contains an axiological trust matrix, with the help of which the audience is captured and new users are involved, the archetypal models being used are analyzed. In total, 1,700 publications on the social network Vkontakte have been analyzed using the method of communicative content analysis through modeling quan-titative and qualitative data from January 01, 2020 to January 01, 2022. The article identifies the sub-discourses cov-ering the main semantic zones of radical feminists and masculists' media discourse in the Russian segment of the Inter-net and assuming a different explanation of the strategies to resist the oppression of women and men. Each sub-discourse presents the main thematic dominants. The threats in the radical feminine and masculine media discourse aimed at the destruction of the family and parenthood as social institutions are considered separately. The ways are outlined designed to cause rejection and hostility to the concept of «child» in the childhate sub-discourse. According to the authors of the study, the norm of modern masculinity and femininity, formed in new media, crystallized in the im-ages of the «digital troll man» and the «new Amazon»; they also describe the tools of linguistic security in social net-works.

Применение алгоритма машинного обучения для профориентации абитуриентов высшего учебного заведения

The aim of the article is to describe the experience of implementing our own software product (Wizard UrFU) for career guidance and navigation of university entrants. The importance of introducing digital technologies for career guidance and navigation of university entrants is substantiated. The article addresses both sociological and IT tasks. On the part of information technology, a description is given of the main methods on which the work of a software product for vocational guidance and navigation of applicants can be built. In particular, we have proved that the most promising is the complex method, which is based on a combination of several methods and algorithms for the operation of neural networks for vocational guidance and navigation of applicants. The article describes the algorithm of the software product developed by our team. We show that this algorithm is based on the analysis of digital traces of applicants in the social network VKontakte. The algorithm uses the machine learning method. We also show that the career guidance system in the Wizard web application is based on a comparison of profile data in the VKontakte social network and generalized data of university students successfully enrolled in one of the educational programs. We analyzed the statistics of recommendations of educational programs to UrFU applicants using the UrFU Wizard web application using the Yandex. Metrics. The socio-demographic portrait of the UrFU Wizard software product user is a young man (or woman) aged 18 to 24 from Yekaterinburg or Sverdlovsk Oblast. This description fully coincides with the main target audience of the Ural Federal University. As a result, 12,780 potential applicants of Ural Federal University started submitting documents through the web application. In addition, 32% or 15,293 applicants made a transition to the institutions’ social networks and educational programs for a more detailed acquaintance. The analysis of the admission campaign results showed that all educational programs that were in the TOP of recommended areas had a significant increase in applicants compared to previous years. In general, Ural Federal University in 2021 held the most massive admission campaign among higher educational institutions in the Russian Federation. In our opinion, the use of services based on the work of artificial intelligence for career guidance and navigation of applicants of a higher educational institution allows a successful solution of the following tasks: to expand the geography of admission without holding face-to-face meetings with applicants; to increase the reach of the advertising campaign and personalize advertising offers; to attract creative and motivated youth; to help the applicant to make the right choice of the direction of training and thereby increase the motivation to study.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE E-PARTICIPATION ECOSYSTEM IN RUSSIA IN THE EARLY 2020S: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND REGIONAL GOVERNANCE CENTERS

This article explores the process of creating a centralized system that ensures processing opinions and claims against regional and municipal officials expressed by citizens in social networks, which began in 2020. Previous research by the authors, devoted to a comprehensive study of Russian systems that ensure interaction of authorities with citizens, revealed six channels of electronic participation at the regional and municipal levels. However, the development of social networks and the emergence of new technologies for involving citizens in public policy have created preconditions for the transformation of e-participation systems. This is reflected both in scientific research and in practice — for example, in the Russian Federation in 2020, a new channel of electronic participation began. A network of Regional Governance Centers (RGC) has been created and is developing, one of the components of which is the “Incident Management” system, which allows real-time monitoring of the reaction of users in social networks and ensures the processing of messages or claims of citizens to the authorities. In this regard, it became necessary to further assess the contribution of social networks to the development of the e-participation ecosystem and the place in it of the centralized channels served by the SDG system. The article presents two pilot SDG analyzes conducted by the authors, which made it possible to identify heterogeneity among new structures in terms of institutional affiliation and regional specifics of activities in the social network VKontakte. The important criteria in the issue of measuring efficiency, in the opinion of the authors, are efficiency, the degree of citizen involvement, the fact of solving an incoming problem, organizational and regulatory support of work processes.

ИМИДЖ ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИХ ПАРТИЙ В ЦИФРОВУЮ ЭПОХУ РАЗВИТИЯ РОССИЙСКОГО ОБЩЕСТВА

The modern digital development of society dictates that political parties not only engage in daily activities that are traditionally characteristic of them, but also develop their digital presence in the Internet space. The article discusses the image of political parties in Russia within the framework of the digital society development and proves the need for them to use their official accounts in social networks. It also explains the relationship between the further promotion of political parties among the population of Russia and the active maintenance of their party publics in social networks. The paper argues that such activities should help attract new party members to their ranks or allow parties to improve their image. The article was written based on the results of a studying the party telegram channels and accounts on the VKontakte social network. A number of comments are made on the further formation of the political parties image in the context of digitalization. The findings of the study can be used to further study the image of political parties in the digital development of Russian society, and can also be used by political parties, public relations specialists in terms of developing and promoting party accounts in social networks.

Buddhist online communities on Vkontakte social network: structure, practices and ideas

Today, social networks have become a space for the active development of Buddhist online communities. In the new digital environment, new social forms of interaction between users are emerging, often with different ideas about Buddhism. Moreover, many of them are not integrated into offline Buddhist communities and practices. This process can be considered as the development of a digital religion, admixture of online and offline social structures, practices and ideas. The paper is aimed at identifying the characteristics of the structure of Buddhist communities on the VKontakte social network. We have used automated data collection and mathematical modelling methods to study the interaction between the existing online communities, identified and described the clusters of Buddhist users.

The peculiarities of using emoji pictograms in online communities with different frequency of use of obscene lexicon

The subject of this research is the use of pictograms for expressing emotions and feelings in network communication. The object is the comments in several communities in the popular among youth social network VKontakte. The goal of this article lies in the comparison of preferred emoji used by the users to express their emotions and feelings, who are part of the communities with different frequency of use of obscene lexicon. The hypothesis is advanced that the groups with different frequency of use of obscene lexicon differ in their emotional tonality and the emoji pictograms used for expressing emotions and feelings. The research is based on the method of survey in form of the questionnaire about the peculiarities of Internet preferences and most attractive communities in social network for the respondents; as well as the method of content analysis. The questionnaire survey involved 854 persons; the data on the frequency of use of emoji was collected on the example of 14 communities in VKontakte social network. It is determined that in communities with lesser use of obscene lexicon, the rating of emoji denoting positive (hedonic and affinity) emotions is higher. In communities with more obscene lexicon, the users equally use pictograms that express negative and positive emotion; most frequent negative emotions such denote anger and frustration, or melancholy, sadness. The acquired results can be applied in development of the methods for monitoring the moods of the users of network communication.

Communities, discursive practices and behavioral patterns of digital vigilantism in Russia: Politico-axiological approach

This article studies vigilantism, a specific form of civic activity whose history can be traced back to the nineteenth century and which in the era of digitalization has acquired new characteristics. Digital vigilantism, as a well-established social phenomenon not only in world practice, but also in Russia, needs an analysis of its structure, goals, motivations, and interests and values of members of various communities to determine trends and changes in civil society in the context of digital transformations. Digital vigilantes seeking to regulate ideas about the “normality” of behavior, using interactions in social networks that are aggressive and even bordering on extremist, claim to be a significant actor for public policy. Legitimizing an alternative system for identifying violators, criminals, victims and punishments (by increasing the number of likes), they not only seek to co-opt the initiative to form public values, but often ignore and replace governmental structures. At the same time, they increasingly turn out to be not nameless avengers, but rather individuals seeking to declare themselves and achieve through creating the conflict not only their own goals, but also a certain popularity or “network power”, which is well monetized. The authors analyze behavioral patterns of the most famous communities — “Lev Protiv” (Lion Against), “StopHam” (StopBoor), “Hrushi protiv” (Piggies Against), and “AntiDealer” — and their activities in the VKontakte social network and on YouTube to typologize Russian vigilantism. The possibility of interaction with such movements (both online and offline formats) is not excluded for the system of public power, if a framework (procedures, rules) can be established for them that determines their auxiliary functions (notification, informing, propaganda). The proliferation of vigilante movements and their demonstration of direct violence is a significant indicator of the inefficiency of the public administration system, a decrease in the level of legitimacy and support for its institutions, and indicates an increased risk of loss of state governability.

Языковая личность суицидента: лингводискурсивные маркеры амбивалентности и демонстративности

The analysis of the texts of different genres, published on the personal page of the user of the social network Vkontakte, with 48 posts and extended dialogues considered, allowed identifying and describing the linguodiscursive signs of ambivalence and demonstrability as the dominant manifestations of the language personality of the suicidal person. These signs were determined at the level of intentional organization of discourse and specificity of the composition and configuration of figurative-expressive means. The comprehensive analysis methodology involved compiling a fragmentary speech portrait of language personality and linguodiscursive, including intensional, stylistic, and contextual analyses. Intentional analysis revealed a complex set of contradictory emotions and feelings, assessments and attitudes. The linguistic personality under study can be characterized by a developed imagination, non-standard and paradoxical semantic articulations and comparisons, combined with uncommon linguistic and creative abilities. Figurative means (metaphor and comparison, hyperbole, rhyme, and rhythmization in the prose text, oxymoron, playing around with antonyms and polysemes) most fully reflect the inner world of the person: an emotional state of confusion, upheaval, desolation, total despair, rejection of oneself, others, and the world, feeling of tragedy, and meaninglessness of existence. The linguodiscursive level reveals the juxtaposition of cognitive and communicative contradictory intentions, vocabulary and idiomatics of social degradation, the abundance of semantic and stylistic contrasts, aphoristic and puns writing style, language experiments, and games.

Исторические нарративы и репрезентации войны в коллективной памяти сообществ Рунета: темпоральные траектории и семантические сети

The article analyses the collective representation of war narratives in the Russian social network VKontakte in the context of the problems of national self-consciousness and national identity. The material for the study was extracted by automated methods using the VKontakte open API. It amounts to 332,781 unique posts from open historical communities from January 1, 2020 to May 9, 2022. Using the PolyAnalyst platform, the authors found out that the word “war” is the most frequent and most significant (the metric takes into account the average frequency of a word in all texts) in this text collection. A sample of texts with the word “war” (49,736 posts) was subjected to additional analysis with a set of NLP methods to study key narratives and semantic connections. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is the principles and approaches of modern narratology and the history of memory. The analysis of social media big data has confirmed that the dramatic historical fate of Russia, as a natural consequence of the factors of vast territory, extended borders, and abundance of natural resources, has shaped the mentality of Russians to be always ready for war. Thematic clustering of texts has confirmed the dominance of the practices of commemoration of the Great Patriotic War, reflected the etatism and etacratism of the Russian consciousness, demonstrated public attention to representations of war in art and science, and discovered the “trench truth” block and its place in the collective war representations. Narratives are often rich in details and facts, pragmatism, prosaic and rationalism. Empirical material confirms that the 20th century certainly occupies a special significance in the memory of Russians about wars. The authors comment on the rating of references to wars in the studied text collection and indicate the opposition of the Great Patriotic War to the Second World War, and the Patriotic War of 1812 to the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century. Some attention is also given to the issues of information wars in the modern world. The presented war narrative is of interest as the foundation of the “collective imaginary”, on the basis of which the prospects and critical boundaries of the image of the future are constructed.

Лингвобезопасность: антивакцинаторский медиадискурс в контексте аксиологических мировоззренческих трасформаций

We consider the impact of anti-vaccination movement and its substantial value attitudes on social networks users in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study is conducted on the materials of the social networks VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Telegram. In total, 2700 publications are analyzed by the method of communicative content analysis through the modeling of quantitative and qualitative data from March 12, 2020 (the beginning of pandemic) to December 31, 2021. When systematizing the results, a general scientific descriptive method is used. Four discursive practices of the anti-vaccination media discourse have been identified, directing users of social networks to perceive a certain aspect of vaccination and suggesting different justification of vaccination resistance strategies. In each discursive practice, the main topics of fake messages are presented, and argumentative models of anti-vaccinators in media texts are also noted. The problem of evaluation and interpretation of facts in the modern media discourse is considered. According to the results of study, the characteristic features of the formed “digital guerrilla media discourse” are formulated, the tools of linguistic security in social networks are designated. In order to protect public health, it is proposed to form programs for the training of new highly specialized professionals, such as “infodemiologist”, where information and biological aspects of public health will be equally taken into account.

Spontaneous vigilantism and conflictogenic potential of the everyday Internet discourse

This article discusses the conflictogenic potential of spontaneous vigilantism in third spaces. Vigilantism is associated with usurpation of the function of justice by unauthorized persons. Vigilantism can be institutionalized and spontaneous, which is related to disorganized participation of individuals in penalizing the violators of social norms. In the conditions of post-truth, the important role in the formation of vigilant discourse is played by the environments of everyday communication – the so-called third spaces. In the context of third spaces, communication is realized beyond the institutional field, i.e. political parties and social movements. Besides the interpersonal relations, the discussion of crucial social issues also takes place in third spaces, which requires assessment from the perspective of its conflictogenic potential. The novelty of this article is determined by the relevant theoretical aspects – analysis of the phenomenon of post-truth, public sphere, echo chambers and third spaces, as well as the authorial empirical research dedicated to the content of messages in third spaces of the social network Vkontakte. The study of spontaneous vigilantism employs the range of posts from the online community “Overheard” in 15 megacities for the past two years. The quantitative and qualitative content analysis revealed the key topics with a vigilant problematic, which were assessed through the prism of conflictogenic potential. The conclusions is made on the contradictory nature of spontaneous vigilantism in the Russian third spaces.

Онлайн-коммуникация в социальных медиа: как опыт утраты приватности отражается на поведении пользователей

Objective. To analyze the effect of privacy violation experience on privacy-protective behaviorsBackground. In the era of rapid development of Internet technologies, privacy issues call for scientific reflection. Understanding the factors that regulate online user behavior might assist in elaborating the adequate privacy policy.Study design. Regression analysis provides a parametric evaluation of the effect of privacy experience on usage of privacy settings. Various matching technics were applied for preliminary balancing of the control (N=215) and treatment groups (N=160) by a set of key covariates.Participants. Users of the largest Russian online social network VKontakte from the Russian city Vologda. The sample size is 375 respondents (55% female) from 16 to 83 age (Mean=32,5; Med.=31; SD=12,9).Measurements. Both survey data on privacy experience and observed behavioral data on privacy settings from users’ online accounts were used. Additionally, the scale of P. Totterdell & D. Holman on propensity to make social connection and M. Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale were adopted in the studyResults. The experience of privacy violation does not lead to the cautious behavior online: the users tend to regulate only the access to the public posts on profile due to past bad experience. The privacy settings literacy turns significantly affect the usage of privacy settings.Conclusions. The findings support the “privacy paradox” hypothesis. As having specific online privacy management skills encourages more cautious behavior online, digital literacy interventions can improve the safety of social networking sites.

Прагматические функции дискурсивных слов в интернет-коммуникации

This work explores discourse markers (DMs), which assess the reported on the scale of reliability/uncertainty in various subgenres of the social network VKontakte. We analyzed more than 370 statements with DMs in messages and user comments in the official public page of Cherepovets (https://vk.com/cherinfo_ru) and news messages on the personal page of Cherepovets mayor V.E. Germanov (https://vk.com/germanovve). The aim of the work is to highlight the features of DMs' functioning in various subgenres of a social network. The hypothesis of the research is that DMs, as units devoid of denotative meaning, implement various pragmatic functions in Internet communication, e.g., explicate the constitutive features of Internet genres, contribute to a person's self-presentation and written text's discursivization, reduce emotional deficit and switch micro-topics. To identify DMs' functions, a four-stage technique was used: (1) determination and comparison of DMs' frequency in the analyzed subgenres and the Russian National Corpus; (2) based on the frequency, identification of nuclear and peripheral DMs, (3) analysis of DMs' context semantics in comparison with dictionary data. (4) revealing the specifics of DMs' use in different subgenres of the social network. The analysis confirmed the hypothesis. DMs implement pragmatic functions in various subgenres of a social network. The subgenre of the commentary is closest to oral discourse, emotional and subjective. DMs fully explicate these constitutive features of the commentary genre. In the hybrid subgenre of news messages on the personal page of the mayor, which bears the features of a personal blog, DMs are used to make the text dialogic, to interact with the reader, and to have a casual conversational style. In the subgenre of news in the official community of Cherepovets, DMs are used less often, which is due to the journalistic text's striving for objectivity and emotionlessness. However, DMs are used when reporting direct speech and also appear in creolized news, in the section from readers #cherinfo_proposal, and in reposts from other sources. As polyfunctional units, whose main purpose is to build interaction between the addresser and the addressee, DMs are used in contexts in various functions. Firstly, in addition to expressing confidence/uncertainty, they help to eliminate emotional deficit, realizing irony and aggression. Secondly, DMs allow the addresser to control the addressee's attention by including new micro-topics in the reported, focusing on what the communicant sees as important or significant. Finally, DMs also help communicants to add features of a conversational style, emotionality, and dialogization to written speech. We refer to this phenomenon as the discursivization of the text, by which we mean an unconscious or conscious attempt by an author to endow their text with an internal dialogization, to bring the written mode of discourse closer to the oral one.

КОНЦЕПТ СТРЕССОУСТОЙЧИВОСТИ КАК МЕТОДОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ ПОДХОД В ИЗУЧЕНИИ АККАУНТОВ ДЕПУТАТОВ КУЗБАССА В СЕТИ ВКОНТАКТЕ

The subject of the article is related to the identification of possible risk factors in the communication of Kuzbass members of the State Duma of the VIII convocation based on the case of the VKontakte social network, which affect the stress resilience of the regional political system in Kuzbass. The purpose of the article is the validation of the authors’ approach to the application of the stress resilience concept to analyzing possible risk factors in the communication of State Duma members of the VIII convocation on the VKontakte network and the identification of stabilizing factors that ensure the stability of all branches of the regional power system. The methodological basis of the study is presented by the concept of resilience, the M. Castells’s concept of the network society and the method of content analysis for studying posts and comments on the posts of deputies. The concept of stress resilience was first substantiated in the works of K. Holling in his consideration of resilience of socio-ecological systems. Russian researchers do not apply the concept of resilience widely; it is applied mainly to the consideration of international issues related to the dynamics of interaction between Russia and the states of the European Union. The first works on the impact of risk factors on the internal political processes of the regions have appeared recently, in particular, against the background of the spread of COVID-19 and under the influence of latent risks of the socio-economic development of the regions. In the course of the study, it was revealed that the accounts of Kuzbass deputies have all the signs of risk factors that not only make the posted news content unattractive, but also affect the sentiments in the region and increase the level of political inertia and apathy towards all programs and projects implemented in the region. News content is formalized, posts have features of low information content, the opinion of politicians in posts is impersonal, and comments do not fulfill its function of receiving an answer to the question posed. Forms of communication are identified as stabilizing factors that contribute to building a more “open” dialogue and exchange of opinions between politicians and network users as a tool for ensuring the sustainable development of Kuzbass

ИССЛЕДОВАНИЕ МОТИВАЦИИ ПОТРЕБЛЕНИЯ ЛЮКСОВЫХ ТОВАРОВ НА ОСНОВЕ ФАКТОРНОГО АНАЛИЗА

The article is devoted to the problem of motivation of conspicuous consumption. The subject of the study is the motivation for the consumption of luxury goods by residents of Russia and Donbass. The article considers the possibility of applying factor analysis in assessing motivation to consume luxury goods. The theoretical and methodological basis of the article are the works of foreign and domestic scientists who have studied the concepts of conspicuous consumption and the motives that underlie the consumer behavior of individuals. It is substantiated that the specifics of conspicuous consumption are influenced by informal institutions: sociocultural values, the level of corruption, power distance, the degree of autonomy/belonging to a social group (individualism/collectivism), implicit competition in reference groups, attitudes towards exclusive things, etc. The empirical basis of the study was the results of a sociological survey of respondents, the selection of which was made based on the content analysis of the user’s personal pages of the VKontakte social network. Respondents were asked to answer 15 questions describing the motivation to consume luxury goods. Factor analysis was carried out in five stages: verification of the suitability of the survey data; calculation of the correlation matrix; extraction of factors and selection of interdependent variables; rotation of factors using the varimax method with Kaiser normalization; interpretation of the results obtained. The result of the analysis is the identification of 5 indicators that have the most significant impact on the consumption of luxury goods: status demonstration, reciprocity, hedonism, functionality, aesthetics. It is concluded that the representatives of Russian culture attach the greatest importance to the symbolic functions of the goods, and the main motive for purchasing luxury goods is the demonstration of status. In second place in the rating of respondents' motives was reciprocity, and in third place was hedonism. To the least extent, the motives of conspicuous consumption of Russians are influenced by the functionality and aesthetics of luxury goods.

The Phenomenon of Regional Euphemisms and the Work of City Managers (the Analysis of Euphemisms in the Internet-Based Discourse)

This article discusses the issue of the relationship between euphemisms and regional phenomena. The author dwells on the definition of euphemisms and the indication of their main features, emphasizing that the main aspect in understanding euphemisms is replacing a rude or undesirable word with a softer and more appropriate one. According to the author, understanding euphemisms that are found in the speech of residents of a certain geographical area is very important for heads of administrations at various levels, employees of departments, working with the local residents, i.e. for managers who ensure the well-being of city dwellers. The notion of euphemisms is closely related to culture and social attitudes that are developed in society. It is the link between euphemisms and culture, certain stereotypes, traditions of society, systems of values, etc. that makes the existence of regional euphemisms possible. In this study, a hypothesis is put forward about the presence of euphemistic substitutions, characteristic of a certain region. As part of the research, an attempt was made to identify euphemisms characteristic of the Tula region (Russia). Examples of direct discussion of Russian-language publications made in the “Overheard in Tula” community of the VKontakte social network serve as the empirical material for the study. As a result of the analysis, it was proved that in most cases, participants in communication use euphemisms when discussing the shortcomings and problems of their region. Understanding such use of euphemisms can help city managers in their work. The research reveals which regional events most often induce the residents of the Tula region to use euphemistic substitutions. Based on the comparison of selected discourse samples and data from lexicographic sources, it is determined whether the used substitutions can be considered euphemisms. The authors come to the conclusion that it is possible to speak about the existence of the very phenomenon of regional euphemisms and that its further study is much needed as it can improve the efficiency of city managers.