TY - GEN

T1 - The potential of social media in Russia: from political mobilization to civic engagement

AU - Sherstobitov, Aleksandr

N1 - Conference code: 1

PY - 2014/11/11

Y1 - 2014/11/11

N2 - Social media was one of the most influential platforms used by counterparts in many recent contentious political events all over the world. Both the statist and protest groups used web-based social networks for political mobilization during the electoral period of 2011-2012 in Russia. This paper focuses on two basic aspects of political communication in the Russian segment of the Internet. Firstly, it discusses the emergence of pro-elite and protest networks, which aim to mobilize political participation during the electoral period. Secondly, it explores the evolution of such networks within 18 months and offline activity, which is determined by contention on social media. In our survey, we take the pro-elite and protest segments of the Russian social network, "Vkontakte", as an object of analysis. We use network analysis to examine how the network appeared and occurred during the electoral period, as well as how such networks have changed 18 months later. The study of the transformations of the protest segments showed a significant shift in civic engagement. One and a half years after the electoral cycle of 2011-2012, the network protest groups institutionalized in NGOs or, at least, in the civil initiatives of different areas: election observation, anti-corruption activity and local issues, etc.

AB - Social media was one of the most influential platforms used by counterparts in many recent contentious political events all over the world. Both the statist and protest groups used web-based social networks for political mobilization during the electoral period of 2011-2012 in Russia. This paper focuses on two basic aspects of political communication in the Russian segment of the Internet. Firstly, it discusses the emergence of pro-elite and protest networks, which aim to mobilize political participation during the electoral period. Secondly, it explores the evolution of such networks within 18 months and offline activity, which is determined by contention on social media. In our survey, we take the pro-elite and protest segments of the Russian social network, "Vkontakte", as an object of analysis. We use network analysis to examine how the network appeared and occurred during the electoral period, as well as how such networks have changed 18 months later. The study of the transformations of the protest segments showed a significant shift in civic engagement. One and a half years after the electoral cycle of 2011-2012, the network protest groups institutionalized in NGOs or, at least, in the civil initiatives of different areas: election observation, anti-corruption activity and local issues, etc.

KW - Network analysis

KW - Political mobilization

KW - Political participation

KW - Social media

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84945893706&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1145/2729104.2729118

DO - 10.1145/2729104.2729118

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:84945893706

VL - 2014-November

SP - 162

EP - 166

BT - EGOSE '14 Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Electronic Governance and Open Society: Challenges in Eurasia

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

T2 - International Conference on Electronic Governance and Open Society: Challenges in Eurasia

Y2 - 18 November 2014 through 20 November 2014

ER -