Communities on Social Media: Political Mobilization and Echo Chambers

An attempt to identify the most influential communities and ideas on social media unavoidably runs into the problem of research space being cluttered with data generated by a plethora of insignificant, artificially inflated and sometimes outright fake communities and personas. To observe the real political activity of netizens, it is necessary to use a set of methods to separate a real online life from its imitation. The object of study is a number of interconnected politicized communities on VK social network. The chronological framework: from 01.03.2024 to 31.05.2024. In order to identify communities and their conglomerates that are the most attractive for netizens, the authors accomplished a set of tasks: mapping politicized communities, determining their political affiliation, revealing mobilized communities and echo chambers. Key research methods are as follows: network mapping, qualitative coding, network analysis. To search for mobilized communities, a new indicator is suggested that is grounded in the theory of self-organized criticality – a theory originating in natural sciences. The largest share of mobilized communities is found in the con-glomerate of patriotic pro-presidential fractions; it is followed by nationalist and liberal fractions. Communities that apparently function as echo chambers are present in all leading conglomerates, but they never occupy a monopolistic central position. The politicized network space is filled with a large number of mixed groups cultivating eclectic views. The fragmentation of netizens is not in any way complete. This paper is addressed to political scientists, political publicists and those netizens interested in politics.