Social Networks and Public Policy

Abstract

Wide use of Internet on the territory of the Russian Federation and, in particular, Web 2.0 technology development, promote the expansion of the number of Internet users among Russian citizens. Most of them have personal profiles in social networks (e.g. VKontakte, Facebook, Instagram) and make the audience of numerous public groups (or "publics"), virtual communities of different thematic focuses. Groups allow users to share political information and discuss burning issues. It is noteworthy that social networks users could act in various ways: create their own content or retransmit ideas of the others by making reposts. The study examined two types of virtual communities of well-known Russian network "VKontakte": 1) pages of official authorities; 2) communities for discussion of politics (the five most popular). Content (including comments and discussions) and personal profiles of the most active participants (150 units at all) were studied. The study conducted through N. Fairclough's interpretation of critical discourse-analysis found that: 1) the main focus of pages of official authorities is spreading of official information and monitoring in the society that allows authorities to respond quickly on critical situations, while public have an opportunity to convey demands to officials; 2) social networks act as a place or forum for public dialogue on political issues and allow ordinary citizens not just "chill out", but also create an illusion of possibility for each person to influence policy; 3) activity in virtual political communities does not correlate with quantity of the reposts from these communities to users' personal profiles; moreover, it does not correlate with users' positioning as an active participant of political discussions in front of his or her followers.

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