Transmedia Engagement: AI-Driven Frame Analysis of the U.S. Digital Diplomacy in Russia

In the context of the deepest geopolitical crisis, digital diplomacy is undergoing changes. If during the COVID-19 pandemic, internal challenges led to the emergence of hybrid or mixed diplomacy, today this phenomenon is trying to survive the external fragmentation of the Internet and de-platforming. These factors influence the changing role of foreign ministries, which are turning from an exclusively primary source of information into transmedia holdings. The authors argue that US digital diplomacy in Russia can serve as an example of such an evolution. Using the theory of transmedia engagement, the authors show that US digital diplomacy depends not only on the work of the State Department or the Agency for Global Media, but receives a wider reach due to the dissemination of messages by a network of media sources that adhere to similar frames as these departments. The authors illustrate this through a frame analysis of nearly 6,000 publications from the social network X, posted on official accounts of American digital diplomacy and organizations recognized by the United States as Russian “independent” media. The analysis covers the four major crises in US-Russia relations, occurring in 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2022, and is conducted using tools such as ChatGPT, Gephi, and Voyant Tools. The article fills a gap in the study of US digital diplomacy in Russia and makes a qualitative breakthrough in the study of text frames using artificial intelligence technologies.