Russian Federation
This article examines agenda-setting by politicized netizens of Russia (a set of the most influential politicized communities on the social media platform VKontakte). The socio-political views of online communities — organized into factions and larger conglomerates — are not treated here merely as projections of "textbook" sociopolitical doctrines. As the first part of a larger study, this publication focuses on the agenda of patriotic pro-presidential factions, as well as that of leftist, Stalinist, conspiracist, and some other online communities. The research involves mapping a large cluster of approximately 500 politicized online communities from which the most influential ones were identified using methods derived from the natural-scientific theory of self-organized criticality. These communities are capable of shaping the values, views, and behavior of their members. The analysis centers on the most widely disseminated posts and comments within these communities over the course of a year. Drawing on this material, the study reconstructs collective historical interpretations, political positions, and agenda peculiar to the factions. The outcome is a detailed map of the ideological landscape within the politicized segment of the social media platform. The overwhelming majority of communities revise history (distant or recent) and use their own historical narratives to construct visions of the future that typically manifest in one of three ways: a negation of historical legacy, a continuation of history, or a return to the principles of some past Golden Age. The author pays particular attention to the concept of meritocracy, common among pro-presidential patriotic factions.
social media, politicized communities, images of the future, agenda-setting, network analysis
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