Content Strategies of the Politically Polarized Groups on "VKontakte" During Ukraine's Political Crisis (2013−2015)

For citation: Zuykina K.L., Sokolova D.V. (2016) Kontentnye strategii polyarizovannykh soobshchestv «VKontakte» v usloviyakh ukrainskogo politicheskogo krizisa (2013−2015) [Content Strategies of the Politically Polarized Groups on "VKontakte" During Ukraine's Political Crisis (2013−2015)]. Mediaskop 4. Available at: http://www.mediascope.ru/2214

© Kristina L. Zuykina

PhD student at the Chair of Media Theory and Economics, Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia), kris.zuy@gmail.com

© Daria V. Sokolova

PhD student at the Chair of Foreign Journalism and Literature, Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia), darina0306@gmail.com

Abstract

The article presents the results of an empirical study of the features of the content strategies of polarized communities on the social network "VKontakte", which were used during the key events of the Ukrainian political crisis.

Leading sites of polar trends were selected for the study, 2031 materials were analyzed, including 1193 materials from the Anti-maidan and the Republic of Novorossia communities (community type II) and 838 from the communities of "Typical Ukraine" and "Overheard Ukraine" (community type I). The timeframe of the research covers the onset of the political crisis and the armed conflict, the active phase of the latter, and the end of the fighting clashes.

During the research, methods of comparative, systemic and quantitative analysis were used, as well as a content analysis method that allowed to determine the features of building public policy strategies for different political orientations.

The results of the study led to the conclusion that, in general, content strategies are roughly similar in both types of communities. However, when verifying a hypothesis about changing strategies in connection with changes in political events offline, there is a different situation. For example, at the beginning of the conflict, type I communities were more popular, which is also supposed to be related to the chosen community strategy: the visible visualization of materials, the emphasis on socio-political materials in the format of the information note, whereas in type II: material prevails in the format "Text + photo", subject matter also includes materials of socio-political themes, but to a much lesser extent.

Keywords: content strategies, "VKontakte", Ukrainian political crisis, information confrontation.

Notes

Antimaydan [Anti-Maidan]. Available at: http://vk.com/antimaydan

Is Your Business Benchmarking its Engagement Rate? Socialbakers. Available at: http://www.socialbakers.com/blog/1525-is-your-business-benchmarking-its-engagement-rate (aссessed: 19.12.2015).

Pidsluhano Ukraina [Overheard Unkraine]. Available at: https://vk.com/pidsluhano_ukr

Respublika Novorossiya [The Republic of New Russia]. Available at: vk.com/the_republic_of_new_russia

Tablitsa narusheniy rezhima prekrashcheniya ognya, 7 sentyabrya 2015 g. [Table of Violations of the Ceasefire, September 7, 2015]. Available at: http://www.osce.org/ru/ukraine-smm/181261?download=true (aссessed: 28.10.2015).

Typova Ukrayna [Typical Ukraine]. vailable at: http://vk.com/myukr

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