The Role of Digital Communication in Spreading Socio-Political Protest Moods among Russian Urban Youth (Using the Example of Yekaterinburg)
Abstract
The role of digital communication in spreading socio-political protest moods among young people is currently an actual scientific and practical problem and is actively being studied. However, whether internet technologies and platforms, especially social networks, intensify offline protest and social and political transformation remains unclear. The scientific community has conflicting views on this issue. A number of studies show that the relationship between online and offline protests depends on the country in question. In this regard, an important task of the research presented in this article was to analyse the relationship between social and political protest activity of young people in the online and offline environment, taking into account the peculiarities of Russia and its socio-political situation.
In addition to the role of digital communication in spreading socio-political protest moods among young people in Yekaterinburg, the study also examines the most popular forms and channels of internet communications among young people as part of their protest activity. The main factors and reasons for the emergence of protest moods among young people in Yekaterinburg are discussed, in correlation with the most influential theories about why protest moods and actions emerge: collective action, relative deprivation, and resource mobilization.
Survey and expert interview methods were used to conduct the research. The results of the research offer answers to questions about the social well-being of young people in Yekaterinburg in general, their values and needs, and whether their expectations meet reality; they shed light on the most effective and preferred forms and spaces for expressing and disseminating socio-political protest moods and actions among Yekaterinburg youth; and they present some explanation for why it is difficult to transfer protest moods expressed mainly in the digital environment into an offline format.
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