TY - JOUR

T1 - Application of Topic Modelling Technology to the Analysis of Social Media Comments in the Context of State Identity Politics Research

AU - Kalashnikova, S.K.

AU - Pogodina, M.Y.

N1 - Export Date: 21 October 2024 Сведения о финансировании: Russian Academy of Sciences, RAS Сведения о финансировании: 123091200068–4 Текст о финансировании 1: This research was funded by EISI as part of the research project \u2116123091200068\u20134 \u201CState Identity Policy in the Context of New Geopolitical Challenges\u201D, carried out at Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INION RAN).

PY - 2024/9/30

Y1 - 2024/9/30

N2 - In the situation of a shrinking field of public politics and a crisis of political trust, citizens may seek an alternative arena for presenting their own point of view. The social Internet space serves as a virtual projection of public contradictions and acts as an arena for the presentation and confrontation of political interests. At the same time, the increasing state presence in virtual space and the growing trust to online sources of information make social media an important channel for promoting certain patterns of political interpretations. The aim of this paper is to analyse the reactions of social media users to discover their attitudes towards the main narratives of contemporary identity politics of the Russian state. We used the Topic modelling method to study citizens’ reactions to various aspects of state identity politics. The total number of comments in the collected database is 8,023 (09/2022-09/2023). In almost all the identified topics we can note the polarity of citizens’ opinions, examples of which are given in the article. However, there are a few topics where the users’ opinion is quite consolidated; for example, the image of the Crimean bridge on the cover of new textbooks was widely supported in comments, while the topic of traditional values, on the contrary, evokes negative feelings and shows “public tiredness”. Despite the limitations described in the conclusion of the article, the study demonstrates the high potential of applying the method of topic modelling to the analysis of the reactions of social media users. © 2024, LLC Scientific Industrial Enterprise "Genesis. Frontier. Science". All rights reserved.

AB - In the situation of a shrinking field of public politics and a crisis of political trust, citizens may seek an alternative arena for presenting their own point of view. The social Internet space serves as a virtual projection of public contradictions and acts as an arena for the presentation and confrontation of political interests. At the same time, the increasing state presence in virtual space and the growing trust to online sources of information make social media an important channel for promoting certain patterns of political interpretations. The aim of this paper is to analyse the reactions of social media users to discover their attitudes towards the main narratives of contemporary identity politics of the Russian state. We used the Topic modelling method to study citizens’ reactions to various aspects of state identity politics. The total number of comments in the collected database is 8,023 (09/2022-09/2023). In almost all the identified topics we can note the polarity of citizens’ opinions, examples of which are given in the article. However, there are a few topics where the users’ opinion is quite consolidated; for example, the image of the Crimean bridge on the cover of new textbooks was widely supported in comments, while the topic of traditional values, on the contrary, evokes negative feelings and shows “public tiredness”. Despite the limitations described in the conclusion of the article, the study demonstrates the high potential of applying the method of topic modelling to the analysis of the reactions of social media users. © 2024, LLC Scientific Industrial Enterprise "Genesis. Frontier. Science". All rights reserved.

KW - Effectiveness of Identity Politics

KW - Identity Politics

KW - Memory Politics

KW - Network Research

KW - Political Identity

KW - Social Network Analysis

KW - Social Network Users

KW - Social Network “VK”

KW - State Identity Politics

KW - Topic Modelling Method

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/e1bf7e56-07ba-3f6e-a167-0194ace9747f/

U2 - 10.46539/gmd.v6i3.471

DO - 10.46539/gmd.v6i3.471

M3 - статья

VL - 6

SP - 358

EP - 375

JO - GALACTICA MEDIA: JOURNAL OF MEDIA STUDIES

JF - GALACTICA MEDIA: JOURNAL OF MEDIA STUDIES

SN - 2658-7734

IS - 3

ER -