Polarisation in Comments Under Videos Featuring Volodymyr Zelensky Published on Youtube

Abstract In recent years, Poland has seen an increase in ideological and political polarisation. Society is divided into various dichotomies, the largest of which is the division between the two dominant political groups in Poland: Law and Justice and the Civic Platform. Polarisation is clearly visible on social networking sites, where users do not hide their views and often conduct discussions on the Internet in a very aggressive way. The aim of this study is to characterise the polarisation among comments published by YouTube users in the context of videos featuring Volodymyr Zelensky. For this purpose, Internet users’ comments posted under five different audiovisual materials published on YouTube by five different publishers were analysed. Both quantitative and qualitative analysis (content analysis) were used to show what types of comments appeared in the context of Russia’s armed attack on Ukraine. Various types of videos were examined (from interviews, through official speeches, to parodies), allowing us to illustrate Internet users’ statements in the context of various genres of recordings. A total of 650 comments were analysed. It was found that polarisation was visible in the analysed material. Dualism is formed on the axis of pro- and anti-Ukrainian and pro- and anti-Russian. Most posts deepen polarisation by affirming the actions of the side they consider closer to themselves. The conflict between defenders of both sides ranges from insulting opposing views to insulting other authors. The discussion also included comments expressing hate speech. There was a noticeable deficit of comments toning down or calming emotions. The study therefore shows that online discussions about materials involving President Volodymyr Zelensky are characterised by a high level of polarisation, vulgarisation and hate speech.