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DOI
https://doi.org/10.31429/26190567-23-1-48-62How to Cite
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2022 Александр Владимирович Соколов, Егор Дмитриевич Гребенко
Abstract
The article analyzes the content of the information agenda formed in the social network “VKontakte” during the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, the 8th Convocation. The relevance of the study of social networks is related to their significant role in the process of shaping of attitudes and perceptions of reality by among young people today. For this purpose, we analyzed the communities of youth public organizations (the Russian Union of Youth and the Russian Union of Rural Youth), as well as youth organizations of political parties that nominated candidates for elections to the State Duma of the 8th Convocation. The dominant information agenda was based on the analysis of the news feed of the RIA Novosti News Agency in the social network “VKontakte.” Communities were analyzed from two perspectives. First, information was collected in terms of audience agendas and activity. Next, a number of characteristics of informational coverage in the social network “VKontakte” were examined: the demographic characteristics of the audience, the value orientations and attitudes of the audience, the topics of information agendas, and the audience involvement in the information agendas of the community. The results of the study suggest that young people are quite distant from major and significant agendas which discuss the problems and the development of the country; one can also observe differences with the broadcast agendas in RIA Novosti, as the largest and most relevant news agency. Overall, the RIA Novosti agenda itself is opportunistic and broadcasts current news bulletins, not oriented toward the preferences of the target audience. Party youth communities do not use two-way communication tools to work with supporters and audiences, which affects user engagement with the information agenda broadcast by the communities. The topic of elections as the main agenda during this period was not broadcast either or by RIA Novosti or communities of youth public organizations “VKontakte”. The electoral agenda was poorly articulated by the youth wings of political parties. Communities of youth organizations were more focused on their own priorities and self-created current agenda, rather than on the general political agenda in the country. This suggests that young people are forced to satisfy their own interest in receiving relevant information about elections in other communities and join discussions about candidates, parties and their programs there.
Keywords
Funding information
The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the EISR within the framework of the research project No. 21-011-31366 “The Image of Russia’s Future in the Views of Young Students: Factors of Formation and Transformation in Terms of Changes and Crises.”
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