Internet in Russia: Framework, Development Technologies and Social Effects

SHOLOKHOV MOSCOW STATE UNIVERSITY FOR THE HUMANITIES

INTERNET IN RUSSIA: FRAMEWORK, DEVELOPMENT TECHNOLOGIES AND SOCIAL EFFECTS

Moscow, 2013

www.mggu-sh.ru MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF RESEARCH The empirical model is based on methods triangulation due to the combination of qualitative (mass surveys, monitoring of social networks) and quantitative (in-depth interviews) methods. The present model allows to combine the data on the Russian Internet users with the description of their socio-political profiles and types of value orientations. The results of the work of the international research group (9-13 July, 2013, Bogota (Columbia)) of World Internet Project (WIP), form the basis of the method of mass surveys and the tools used for this method. A number of open surveys on the specific features of values and needs of Russian users were added to the WIP methodology. The research is also characterized by the fact that interviewees of the mass surveys were the active Internet users aged 15-30 as well as participants of Russian Educational Forum «Seliger-2013» held in July 2013. The Forum was organized by Federal Agency of Youth Policy of Ministry of Education and Science, RF, which is a strategic partner of the Sholokhov Moscow State University for the Humanities . In addition to the WIP methodology which implies the research based on mass surveys, the present model is combined with in- depth interviews which allow to receive a detailed picture of value preferences of Russian Internet users taking into account their personal characteristics, their communicative style on the Internet. The scientific expertise of the in-depth interviews was provided by Russian Public Opinion Research Centre, research committees in political sociology, Russian Association of Political Science and Russian Sociologists Society. Monitoring of social networks based on cybermetric computerized analysis helps to work with small sampling and reveal interconnection between offline and online representation of value orientations of young Russian users. Financial support of the research was provided by the grant ‘’Influence of the Internet communication on the development of value orientations of young people in Russia’ МД-7540.2013.6 ‘’ (Grants Council under the President of RF). • Research facilities were provided by the Centre of Cyber Politics and Applied Political Research of the Institute of High Hume Technologies in Social Computing, Sholokhov Moscow State University for the Humanities .

www.mggu-sh.ru RESEARCH CHARACTERISTICS Research goals: – to discover the value preferences of young Internet users in Russia; – to define the degree of involvement of young users in the Internet communication; – to study the most popular sources and gadgets, used for the Internet connection; – to analyse the characteristics of the users’ perception of their political status on the Internet; – to identify risks of the Internet communication for young users; – to study the users’ perception of their freedom and security on the Internet; – to define the frequency of using the Internet-services for communication; – to describe the degree of young users’ participation in content creation/dissemination/posting; – to study the domineering types of the Internet content used by young users in Russia; – to single out the basic roles, typical for young Internet users; – to study the specific features of how young people use the Internet for economic and financial purposes; – to study the specific features of how young people use the Internet for educational purposes and their professional growth; – to analyse the correlations between the degree of involvement of young users in the Internet communication and socio-demographic factors; – to characterise social and political profiles of young Internet users; – to analyse the representation of the main value orientation of young Internet users in their profiles on Vk; – to compare the value orientations of young users expressed online and offline; – to study the representation of nuclear value orientations online in the Internet discourse; – to study the representation of nuclear value orientations offline in the Internet discourse; – to define the representation of life goals of young users in the Internet discourse; – to analyse the representation of the perception of future by young Internet users in Russia.

www.mggu-sh.ru SAMPLING VERIFICATION The mass survey is based on multi-step sampling, which includes the procedure of the step-by-step selection of subjects. The body of subjects chosen on the previous level (stage) becomes initial for the selection on the next one. Probability (cluster) sampling is used on the first level. The selection units on this level comprise different types of settlements (urban/rural) in Federal Districts of Russia (Central, North-Western, Southern, North Caucasus, Ural, Siberian, Far Eastern). The quota sampling is used on the next level. Sampling units in this level (secondary units) are chosen in accordance with the statistical data (quota parameters) on demographic characteristics (gender, age) of the subjects from the entire assembly. The sampling units are chosen with the help of random non- repeated selection (all units in the assembly have the same probability of being included into the sampling). The total number of the sampling is 1100 people aged 15-30. The sampling error does not exceed 3%. The qualitative (mass) research and quantitative (in-depth interviews) research are based on opposed principles. The first kind of research is mainly statistical and it is aimed at the search of a homogeneous group of respondents with the required characteristics (gender, age, type of settlement, region). The second kind uses the principle of heterogeneity: the choice of a new respondent, object or situation depends on their opposition and variability. The in-depth interview is based on the random sampling. The researchers use the targeted selection (method of typical representatives) which means that the selection is performed in accordance with certain criteria: individual characteristics (gender, age, level of education, occupation, federal district, and type of settlement), the degree of involvement of users in Internet communication (not less than 1 time a week), the account in social network(s). Therefore, the respondents from the mass survey who gave the most detailed positions participate in the in-depth interview. The sampling volume for the in-depth interview is 40 respondents aged 14-33. Monitoring of social networks is performed with the help of cybermetric instruments of the national social network Vk and the Internet-server – IQ Buzz (for Facebook, Twitter and other blog hosting), which allowed the researchers to use the complete sampling.

www.mggu-sh.ru Diagram 1 Diagram 3 Respondents distribution based on their age Respondents distribution based on their level of education

Secondary school/middle Primary school or lower;school/attending high High school 2,5 school; 6,7 graduate/vocational 15-19; 25,3 school; 7,6 25-30; 37,6 College degree/university degree or higher; 46,4

Attending or attended university; 36,4 20-24; 37,1

What is the highest level of schooling that you have completed?, % In what year were you born?, %

Diagram 2 Diagram 4 Respondents distribution based on their gender Respondents distribution based on their educational status

No; 32,7

Male; 50 Female; 50

Yes; 66,7

Are you a student?, % Gender, %

www.mggu-sh.ru Diagram 5 Respondents distribution based on their employment status

Other (SPECIFY); 21,6 None of the above; 1,7 Employed part-time; Permanently disabled 27,2 (unable to work); ,9 Retired; ,2

Unemployed; 3,4 Housewife/Househusba nd/Looking after other Employed full-time; persons; ,6 44,4

Diagram 6 Are you employed?, % Respondents distribution according to the federal districts

Southern Federal Far Eastern Federal District; 8,2 District; 4,5 Volga Federal District; 20,5 Central Federal District; 28,4

Northwestern Federal District; 10,4 North Federal District; Urals Federal District; Siberian Federal 4,9 9,1 District; 14

Federal District? %

www.mggu-sh.ru INTENSITY OF THE INTERNET COMMUNICATION According to the findings of the mass opinion poll, 99,5 % of the respondents are the Internet users (diagram 7). It is interesting that 32 % have been involved in the Internet communication for the last five years, 55,2 % have been using the Internet for about 6 – 10 years, 9,5 % have been online for more than 10 years and 1,3 % – for more than 15 years (diagram 8). Taking into consideration these statistics, we can assume that increase in the Internet proliferation in Russia is primarily effected due to the involvement of young people in the Internet communication. The hierarchy of information sources for Russian young people includes (it is based on the sum of positive responses to “absolutely important” + “important”): the Internet (85,8 %); personal communication (84,5 %); television (53,3 %); press (50,6 %); radio (40,2 %). It is necessary to point out certain aspects. Firstly, proportions of those respondents who mentioned personal online communication as a significant source of information are identical in size. Apparently, this is determined by the fact that personal communication is more and more moving to the virtual space. Secondly, analysis of the priority level of various information sources (only the “absolutely important” response is taken into account) results in a significantly different hierarchy of preferences of young people: 44,7 % treat personal communication (with relatives and friends) as an absolute priority, 28,7 % choose the Internet, 9,8 % prefer television, 8,2 % -the press (newspapers, magazines), 4,9 % – radio (diagram 9). In this respect it is pivotal to point out that the hypothesis is being confirmed according to which the majority of social networks are originally formed offline and then are transferred to the virtual space. Thirdly, the most substantial anti-rating (the sum of such negative responses as “absolutely not important” and “not important”) is identified with three information sources: radio (38,3 %), television (33,6 %), the press (31 %). Hierarchy of the leisure activities sources reflects the focus of young Russian users on the entertaining functions of the Internet dia( - gram 10). Thus, 71,3 % of the respondents are involved, in the first place, in the leisure space of the Internet (24,2 % out of them consider the Internet “absolutely important”), 38 % regard television as a significant source of entertainment, 27 % – radio, 25,3 % – the press (these data are generated on the basis of the sum of all positive responses). The most significant anti-rating values are characteristic of such entertainment sources as the press (55,1 %), radio (51,6 %), television (48,9 %) (these data are yielded on the basis of the sum of all negative responses).

www.mggu-sh.ru Diagram 7 Diagram 9 Proliferation of the Internet in Russia Priority information sources

120 Personal communication Absolutely not 1,54,5 8,5 39,8 44,7 (family, friends etc.) important 100 0,5

Not important 32,4 Radio 12,7 25,6 20,2 35,3 4,9 80

The press (newspapers, Difficult to say 60 magazines) 9,5 21,5 18 42,4 8,2 No 99,5 Yes Important 40 Television 12,9 20,7 12,5 43,5 9,8 67,6

20 The Internet 1,15,3 7,6 57,1 28,7 Absolutely important

0 All age categories Young people aged from 15 to 30 years 0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Do you use the Internet? How important as an information source is...?, in % according to the marked variable

Diagram 8 Diagram 10 The user’s track record Priority sources of entertainment

Absolutely not Radio 23,1 28,5 19,1 21,5 5,5 important

from 11 to 15years; 9,5 More than 16 years; 1,3 Not important Less than 5 years; 32 The press (newspapers, magazines) 20 35,1 18 21,8 3,5 Difficult to say

Television 20,2 28,7 12 31,3 6,7 Important from 6 to 10 years; 55,2

The Internet 4 16,2 8 47,1 24,2 Absolutely important

How long have you used the Internet?,in % of the whole array of respondents 0 20 40 60 80 100 120

How important as a source of entertainment is ...?, In % according to the marked variable

www.mggu-sh.ru TECHNOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS IF THE INTERNET COMMUNICATION Speaking about the points of the Internet connection, 95,6% of the respondents answered that they use the Internet from home (Diagram 11). 71,8% of the respondents have Internet access at home (apart from mobile connection) – Diagram 12. 71,5% of the participants use the Internet at work, 62,4% use it outdoors (in Internet cafes, libraries, etc.), 57,3% use it in transport (cars, buses, etc.). The most unpopular places for using the Internet are educational institutions (schools, universities), only 33,% of the respondents do it there (Diagram 11). Therefore, Internet communication has become an integral part of young users’ lifestyle. Young people use a number of gadgets for logging on the Internet: computers (96,7%), mobile phones (74%), tablets and e-books (41,8%) – Diagram 13. The respondentsof the 20-30 age group, use their computers for the Internet connection (Diagram 14). The largest number of the respondents who do not use their phones for Internet connection belong to the oldest group of young people (Diagram 15). Tablets are not affordable for 18% of the respondents aged 25-30; 14,5% – for the 20-24 age group, 10,5% – for the 15-19 age group (Diagrams 16). As a result, young users use far more mobile technologies.

Diagram 11 Diagram 12 Localisation of Internet connection Access to Internet at home

On the move, such as in cars and buses, and on the street 57,3 28,4

Anywhere else, such as Internet cafes, other people's 62,4 23,6 homes, libraries, etc. No; 6,7

At school, outside your home 33,5 38,2

Yes No At work, not in the home 71,5 19,1

At home 95,6 1,3

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 Yes; 71,8

On an average day, do you use the Internet in the following locations?, % Do you have a home Internet connection, excluding a connection through a mobile phone?, %

www.mggu-sh.ru Diagram 13 Diagram 15 Gadgets used for Internet connection The use of phones for Internet connection

Table or e-reader 41,8 32,2

Phone 74 16,2

Yes No

Computer 96,7 0,5

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Tell us which devices you use to connect to the Internet (e.g., for search, e-mail, social networks, etc.)?, %

Diagram 14 Diagram 16 The use of computers for Internet connection The use of tablets/e-books for Internet connection

www.mggu-sh.ru TECHNOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS IF THE INTERNET COMMUNICATION Internet for sending/receiving messages Checking the e-mail is the most common activity in the Internet (64% of the respondents do it every day, 39,5% of them do it several times a day – Diagram 17). The older the respondents are, the more often they use emails for sending and receiving messages (Diagram18), which can be explained by the beginning of their careers. Sending/receiving instant messages is the second popular instrument (for instance, Skype, ICQ, QIP, and mail-agent). 46,6% of the respondents do it every day, 34,2% use Internet services of instant messaging several times a day). This group is mainly represented by students and graduates aged 20-24 (Diagram 19). Only 24,2% of the respondents (the data combine the answers «several times a day» and «once a day») make phone calls using Internet services (for example, Skype). Diagram 17 Internet for creation, posting and dissemination of content

Re-post or share links or content (videos, photos, 14,7 13,3 16,5 12,2 11,3 15,5 writing, etc.) created by others Several times a day

Post your own content (videos, photos, writing, 16 12,5 16,9 16,7 12,5 8,9 etc.) you created Daily Post messages or comments on social networking 34,7 18 14 5,56,44,9 sites Weekly Post messages or comments on discussion boards 15,8 14 15,8 10,5 15,5 12 or forums Monthly Make or receive calls over the Internet 14,2 10 17,1 13,8 13,5 15,1

Less than monthly Do instant messaging 34,2 12,4 12,4 6,4 10 8,2

Check your e-mail 39,5 24,5 13,3 3,11,81,1 Never

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

How often do you use the Internet for the following purposes?, %

www.mggu-sh.ru Diagram 18 Diagram 19 Frequency of e-mailing Frequency of Internet use for sending/receiving instant messages

www.mggu-sh.ru TECHNOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS IF THE INTERNET COMMUNICATION Internet for creation, posting and dissemination of content The motivation of young Russian users: to create, post their own content and disseminate other users’ content remains one of the most important aspects of the research. Young people actively post their own messages and comments in social networks – 52,7% (34,7% of respondents answered “several times a day”). – Diagram 17. The number of users who post their messages or comments on discussion forums is much lower (15,8% do it several times a day, 14% – once a day). 28,5% of the respondents post the content they created themselves (videos, photos, articles, etc.) every day. Practically the same number of users (28%) post the content created by other users. The leading position of social networks in creation, posting and dissemination of content can be explained by the size of their audiences as well as by the communication itself, when users primarily communicate with reference groups and individuals. The opportunity to post and keep a good deal of information on the Internet is of great importance for one third of young Internet users in Russia. Communication and discussion with different users also play an important role for one third of the respondents. As a result, there is a possibility to continue online communication offline. Diagram 17 Internet for creation, posting and dissemination of content

Re-post or share links or content (videos, photos, 14,7 13,3 16,5 12,2 11,3 15,5 writing, etc.) created by others Several times a day

Less than monthly Do instant messaging 34,2 12,4 12,4 6,4 10 8,2

Check your e-mail 39,5 24,5 13,3 3,11,81,1 Never

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

How often do you use the Internet for the following purposes?, %

www.mggu-sh.ru TECHNOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS IF THE INTERNET COMMUNICATION Internet content The largest part of young users in Russia (67,4%) search for new information every day, 41,6% of the respondents search for news several times a day (Diagram, 20). Approximately one fourth of the respondents use the Internet for fun, 15% of them search for humorous content several times a day (primarily two age groups 15-19 and 20-24 – Diagram 21). However, young Russian users have different preferences in comparison with those revealed as a result of the World Internet project 2012, in which all age groups of the Russian population were interviewed (humorous content took the lead)1. One fifth of the respondents (20,3%) search for information about health every day. Reading blogs has become daily practice for 17,6% of young people (the data combine “several times a day” and “once a day” answers). Quite a significant number of users have never done it before. 15% of users search for travel information daily, while 11% need information about job opportunities (24,2% of the respondents have never done it). There is a correlation between the users’ content preferences and their age group: the older the respondents are the greater interest they have in news. There is another correlation for reading blogs: the younger the respondents are the more fun content they use.

1 Bubnov A.Y., Dmitrieva O.V., Shapovalov V.L. Degree of involvement of Russian people in Internet communication // Monitoring of Public Opinion: economic and social changes. 2013. № 3. P.19 – 27.

Diagram 20 Diagram 21 Types of Internet content Internet content: frequency of use

Look for health 8,5 11,8 20 15,3 20,9 6,7 Several times a information day

Look for jokes, Daily cartoons, or other 14,9 17,3 14,9 9,6 13,3 13,3 humorous content

Weekly Read web-logs (Blogs) 14 13,6 12,7 10,2 14 17,8

Monthly Look for jobs, work 5,6 5,5 7,8 9,6 30,4 24,2

Look for travel Less than monthly 7,8 7,3 13,1 19,8 27,1 7,5 information

Look for news - local, Never 41,6 25,8 9,1 2,72,72,7 national, international

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

How frequently do you use the Internet for the following purposes?, %

www.mggu-sh.ru TECHNOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS IF THE INTERNET COMMUNICATION Internet and leisure activities The results of the present research confirm the fact that leisure Internet services dominate in the young users’ preferences (the data combine answers «several times a day» and «once a day») - 73% of the respondents use the global network to visit social networks (57,3% of them do it several times a day), 56,2% upload and listen to music (36,9% do it several time a day), 52,3% download and watch video (32,5% do it several time a day), 39,2% - surf the web (23,6% do it several times a day)., 17,4% play online games (8,9% - do it several times a day) – Diagram 22. It is quite surprising that only one fifth of young Internet users in Russia are gamers. More than 70% of the respondents mentioned that they have never gambled online, 53% have never read information on religious sites, 50,2% have never opened sites with sexual content, 34,7% have never listened to the radio online, 32,5% have never played online games. The analysis of the Internet leisure activities shoes that there are a number of correlations: first, the older the respondents are the more actively they surf the web; second, the younger the age group they fall into is, the more music lovers and film lovers such a group contains (Diagrams 23-24). The distinct differentiation of roles or domination of a particular Internet role are more typical for the oldest age group (older than 43), the scope of the Internet communication in this age group is rather limited, whereas younger people play a number of roles in the Internet every day1.

1 Nechaev V.D. Brodovskaya, Kaira Classification of the Internet content used by the Russian users: preliminary results of cluster analysis // Materials of the II International Conference « Social computing: principles, technologies of development, social effects» (ISC-13): Moscow, 2013. P. 436 – 457.

www.mggu-sh.ru Diagram 22 Diagram 23 Internet for leisure activities Musical content: frequency of use

Look at sites with sexual content 2,71,85,5 4,2 16,7 50,2 Several times a day Surf or browse the Web 23,6 15,6 10,5 6 9,1 16,9

Daily Bet, gamble, or enter sweepstakes 21,51,51,63,5 72,4

Listen to a radio station online 8,5 9,8 9,8 6,2 13,5 34,7 Weekly Look at religious or spiritual sites 3,122,5 8 14,4 53,1

Monthly Visit social networking sites 57,3 15,8 3,82,21,62,4

Download or watch video 32,5 19,8 17,6 6 4,52,2 Less than monthly Download or listen to music 36,9 19,3 11,5 7,1 7,11,5

Never Play games 8,9 8,4 8,4 7,3 17,1 32,5

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 How frequently do you use the Internet for the following purposes?, %

Diagram 24 Video content: frequency of use

www.mggu-sh.ru CONTENT CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INTERNET COMMUNICATION Internet for economic and financial activities Russian people actively use the Internet opportunities for economic and financial purposes. However, the degree of their involvement in the Internet communication connected with payments, buying goods online, using online bank services is much lower than their interest in leisure and fun activities (Diagram 25). E Therefore, everyday activity of young users mainly reflects the search for product/ service information (38% the data combine all positive answers: 14,7% of the respondents do it several times a day, 23,6% do it once a day), comparison of prices (14%), online banking (10,2%), electronic payments. 15-19% of the respondents use the Internet resources once a month for economic or financial purposes including payments, online shopping, online banking. At the same time 68,9% of the respondents have never invested their money in shares/stocks/funds through Internet services, 59% have never sold anything online, 44,2% have never booked their trips online, nearly one third of young users have no experience in comparison prices for products and services, using online banking, payments, or online shopping. The respondents aged 20-30 are more likely to use the Internet for financial and economic purposes (Diagram 26). The search for product/service information is daily practice for the users aged 15-19 , this habit is gradually becoming a part of their lifestyle. Diagram 25 Diagram 26 Internet for economic and financial activities Product/service information: frequency of use

Sell things online 2,23,14,7 5,5 7,6 59,1

compare prices of 5,6 8,4 20 10,4 10,5 28 products / services Invest in stocks / funds / 1,51,12,23,8 4,7 68,9 bonds Usse your bank's online 3,8 6,4 12,9 14,5 10,9 33,5 Several times a day services Daily Pay bills 2,73,5 9,3 18,4 14,5 34,9 Weekly Monthly Make travel reservations Less than monthly 1,51,32,7 6,5 26 44,2 / bookings Never

Buy things online 1,82,7 7,3 15,6 24,5 30,5

Get information about a 14,7 23,6 22 9,6 7,6 4,9 product

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

How frequently do you use the Internet for the following purposes?, %

www.mggu-sh.ru CONTENT CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INTERNET COMMUNICATION Internet for self education Pursuing educational purposes, young people use the Internet every day for the following reasons: most of them search for term definitions (55,4% (29,6% do it several times a day, 25,8% do it once a day), they also search for the information about their timetable (43,4% (23,8% – do it several times a day). This data prove that Internet resources have substituted traditional dictionaries/encyclopedia for young users. One fourth of the respondents (25,5%) daily check the information about a particular fact using the global resources, 25,6% do it several times a day (Diagram 27). Consequently, Internet resources accompany the educational and self educational processes. 10,6% of the respondents take distant courses, work on their dissertations, improve their qualification (4,4% do it several times a day, 8,7% – every week, 8% – every month, 16,7% less often than every month. However, the number of those respondents who have never used Internet for education/self-education is also rather high – 38,5%, 9,6% of them have never tried searching information about their timetable. The older the respondents are, the greater need they have in reference information. (Diagram 28); the younger the respondents are, the more importance they ascribe to the search of information on their timetable (Diagram 29). Diagram 27 Internet for self education

Participate in distance learning for an Several times a day 4,4 6,2 8,7 8 16,7 38,5 academic degree or job training Daily

Get information for 23,8 19,6 14,4 7,6 7,6 9,6 Weekly school-related work

Monthly

Find or check a fact 25,6 25,5 21,5 6 1,81,6 Less than monthly

Never

Look up a definition 29,6 25,8 18,5 4,22,22,5 of a word

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

How frequently , if ever, do you use the Internet for the following purposes?, %

www.mggu-sh.ru Diagram 28 Diagram 29 Reference information: frequency of search Scheduling of classes/courses: frequency of search

www.mggu-sh.ru USERS’ PERCEPTION OF THEIR POLITICAL STATUS IN THE INTERNET 58% of young people in Russia agreed with the statement «People like you have more opportunities for discussion of government policy» (18,2% - fully agree with it, 39,8% - agree with it) – Diagram 30. The index of freedom of users’ political communication (И 1), has a positive value: И1=44,5%1. The majority of the respondents (55% , 17,6% of them fully agree, 37,5% agree) believe that users have more opportunities for implementation of their rights and freedoms. The index of implementation of users’ political rights and freedoms (И2) is 38,9%. 45,5% of the respondents (13,3% of them fully agree, 32,3% agree) that the Internet communication helps them to understand better the decisions taken by politicians. The index of politicians’ activities (И3) is 23,1% (it is twice as little as the index of freedom of political communication on the Internet). The Index of potential influence of users on statesmen И4 is 12,6, which is the lowest. The statement “Statesmen have to pay more attention to what people like you think about them” was supported by 42,2% of young Russian users (14,4% - fully agree, 28% - agree). However, while answering the questions about their political status on the Internet, 27-30% of the respondents found it difficult to define. This fact corresponds to the research results provided by the World Internet project-2012, according to which the largest cluster included those users who avoided political content online2. Further comparison of the WIP results shows that young Russian users are still more actively involved in this process than the average numbers in other age groups3. The analysis of the relation of the above-mentioned variables to the age groups allows us to draw the following conclusions: the older the respondents are – the more interested they are in the political opportunities of the Internet (Diagrams 31-34). Studying the young people’s perception of their political status on the internet we made the following conclusions: if users have more trust in Internet content, they are more likely to get information from the Internet resources. More commenting on discussion forums or more reading news on the Internet means that users have a positive view on their political rights and freedoms implementation on the Internet. (Spearman’s coefficients4:0,198**, 0,252**, -0,124**, -0,110**) ; – although the positive assessment of opportunities to discuss their actions correlate with the same group of variables (except the intensity of news search), the relations are not so obvious (0,118**, 0,165**, -0,095*); – the positive attitude towards new Internet opportunities which provide better understanding of politicians’ behaviour correlates with the defined group of variables(0,218**, 0,195**, 0,096*); except the higher level of commenting activity on discussion forums; 1 The following formula is applied: the sum of positive responses minus the sum of negative ones 2 Nechaev V.D. Brodovskaya, Kaira Classification of the Internet content used by the Russian users: preliminary results of cluster analysis // Materials of the II International Conference « Social computing: principles, technologies of development, social effects» (ISC-13): Moscow, 2013. P. 436 – 457. 3 Nechaev V.D., Brodovskaya E.V. Political functions of the Internet perceived by Russian people // Monitoring of public opinion: economic and social changes. 2013. № 3. P. 28 – 41. 4 ** - correlation is valuable for 0,01; * - correlation is valuable for 0,05.

www.mggu-sh.ru – the positive assessment of the influence the users exert on statesmen are connected with such variables as: the level of trust in reliability of Internet content(0,159**);. necessity to receive information from Internet resources(0,153**), necessity to get information from traditional media (newspapers, magazines, etc.) (0,084*), personal communication (0,086*); intensity of information search (-0,096*).

Diagram 30 Diagram 31 Users’ perception of their political status on the Internet Political rights and freedoms on the Internet: evaluation of opportunities for enlargement Public officials will care more what people like 9,6 20 26,7 28 14,2 Strongly disagree you think

Somewhat disagree People like you can better understand 6,4 16 30,4 32,2 13,3 politics Neutral / People like you will Undecided have more say about 3,1 10,5 27,3 39,8 18,2 what the government does Somewhat agree

People like you can have 3,8 12,4 28 37,5 17,6 Strongly agree more political power

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Do you think by using the Internet…?, % Diagram 32 Open communication: evaluation of the Internet opportunities

www.mggu-sh.ru Diagram 33 Diagram 34 Better understanding of politicians’ actions: Public opinion influence evaluation of Internet opportunities on the Internet: evaluation of the potential

www.mggu-sh.ru USERS’ PERCEPTION OF THEIR FREEDOM AND SECURITY IN THE INTERNET Reliability of Internet content 49,3% of young users speaking about the reliability of information available on the Internet, expressed positive opinions: 1,1% of the respondents chose the variant «fully reliable», 48,2% chose – «it is likely to be reliable than unreliable». The number of pessimists is twice as low: only 2,2% of the respondents think that this information is «completely unreliable», 18,4% – think it is likely to be unreliable (Diagram 35). The optimists are mainly represented by the respondents who belong to the 25-30 age group, whereas the pessimists belong to the 20-24 age group (Diagram 36). There are correlation between the trust in the reliability of information on the Internet and the group of variables which reflect the users’ perception of their political status in the web (diagrams 37-40): Spearman’s correlation coefficient with1 the variable «Evaluation of the opportunities for the implementation of political freedoms and rights – 0,198**; with the «evaluation of opportunities for discussions of government policy -0,118**; with the «evaluation of opportunities for better understanding of politician’s actions» – 0,218**; with the «evaluation of opportunities for exerting influence on statesmen on the Internet– 0,159**. In conclusion, the higher the level of trust in Internet content is, the more positive the users’ perception of their political status on the Internet is.

1 ** – корреляция значима на уровне 0,01; * – корреляция значима на уровне 0,05.

Diagram 35 Diagram 36 Reliability of Internet content: users’ evaluation Credibility of Internet content

None of it; 2,2 All of it; 1,1

A small portion of it; 18,4

Most pf it; 48,2

About half of it; 26,4

How much of the information on the Internet overall is generally reliable?, %

www.mggu-sh.ru Diagram 37 Diagram 39 Internet content credibility Internet content credibility and the level of political subjectness and the level of political subjectness

Diagram 38 Diagram 40 Internet content credibility Internet content credibility and the level of political subjectness and the level of political subjectness

www.mggu-sh.ru PERCEPTION OF FREEDOM LIMITS AND SECURITY IN THE INTERNET Risks of the Internet communication The majority of the respondents have experienced situations which threatened their personal rights and interests. Thus, 73,3% of young users have accidentally been redirected to sites with sexual content while searching for some other information, 67% mentioned that their computers had been attacked by viruses from the Internet; 46% received offensive or indecent emails; 21,8% were asked to send their personal data or their bank account data; 17% were bullied, made fun of or harassed; 12,2% purchased substandard goods which did not match with what had been advertised on a website (Diagram 41) One of the main risks of the Internet communication is connected with the violation of confidentiality of personal data. 39,6% of the interviewees think «that there is not any confidentiality on the Internet and they fully accept it» (13,1% – fully agree, 26,5% – agree); 41,3% of the respondents worry that the government can watch them online (16,2% – fully agree, 25,1% – agree) 46,7% feel worried that huge corporations like Google, Facebook or Vk cant also watch them online (19,8% – fully agree, 26,9% – agree), 46,3% feel uncomfortable because strangers can watch them online (19,8% – fully agree, 26,5 – agree)) (Diagram 42) There is the same tendency, which is similar to that registered in the results of the World Internet Project in Russia-2012: young people are not mainly concerned with the way their private space was violated, they feel more worried about insecurity of personal data on their Internet activity. The respondents aged 30-40 have a bit more concern about this issue (Diagram 43). 40,9% of young people try to protect their confidentiality on the Internet; 29,5% think that this issue is exaggerated, 42% say that «they have nothing to hide», 22,2% are sure that they can control the level of confidentiality online (Diagram 42). 42,2% of the respondents have experienced the invasion into their private life (27,3% answered “yes, but it was a minor problem’’, 8,4% – answered – “yes, I felt uncomfortable”, 1,8% answered “yes, it caused financial problems”, 0,9% – ’’yes, it influenced my work/career’’, 3,8%“yes, it influenced my personal relationships” – (Diagram 44).

www.mggu-sh.ru Diagram 41 Diagram 43 Risks of Internet communication The attitude towards the government control over Internet communication Been bullied or harassed 17,1 76,5

Accidentally arrived at a pornographic website when 73,3 23,8 looking for something else

Been contacted by someone online asking you to provide 21,8 72 bank or personal details

Had your credit card details stolen via use on the Internet 2 90,4

Bought something which was misrepresented on a website 12,2 81,3 Yes No

Received a virus on your computer 67,1 30,4

Received obscene or abusive e-mails 46 50,2

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

In the past year have you ever…?, %

Diagram 42 Diagram 44 Evaluation of confidentiality of personal data on the Internet Intrusion into users’ private life I feel I can control my privacy online 13,5 16,4 25,1 16 6,2 Strongly disagree

I have nothing to hide 7,3 13,5 14,7 24,5 17,5 Yes, and it affected my 3,8 Somewhat disagree personal relationship(s) Concerns about privacy online are exaggerated 9,3 21,8 23,1 20 9,5

Yes, and it affected my I actively protect my privacy online 5,6 15,6 22 25,3 15,6 0,9 Neutral / job/career I am concerned other people are violating my privacy Undecided 5,8 18,9 13,1 26,5 19,8 online Yes, and it had financial 1,8 I am concerned corporations are violating my privacy consequences 5,3 17,8 14,9 26,9 19,8 Somewhat agree online

I am concerned governments are violating my privacy 5,8 23,1 14,2 25,1 16,2 online Yes, and it was embarrassing 8,4 Strongly agree There is no privacy, accept it 4,4 19,3 20,7 26,5 13,1 Yes, but it was a minor 27,3 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 problem

How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements?, % 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Have you ever had your privacy violated online?, %

www.mggu-sh.ru FREEDOM AND SECURITY IN THE INTERNET FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN THE INTERNET

Attitudes to the increasing control over the Internet communication The question about freedom and security of opinions expressed about politics and politicians split the young audience into two corresponding groups. The first group is made up of 41,3% of the respondents (11,3% – fully agree, 30% – agree) who feel comfortable and openly express what they think about state policy on the Internet (Diagram 45). In this case there are following relations (Spearman’s correlation coefficient)1 ) with the variable «evaluation of opportunities for the implementation of political rights and freedoms» (0,135**); «commenting activity on discussion forums» (-0,168**); « the evaluation of opportunities for discussion of government policy -(0,130**); «posting comments/messages in social networks (-0,140**); «dissemination of content created by other users (-0,194**); «following news» (-0,108*); «reading blogs» (-0,121**); «visiting social networks» (-0,112**); «surfing the web» (-0,090*). Thus, there is a relation between the volume of Internet communication, which each user prefers, positive attitudes to a number of political functions provided by the Internet and the open position of the respondents on the state policy. The number of those respondents who feel comfortable openly expressing what they think about certain politicians on the Internet is 7% lower (33,8% – fully agree, 9,1% – agree) (Diagram 45). Some relations are regular but they have lower indices. The limited volume of Internet communication (for instance, there is no connection between web-surfing and news search) is one of the main distinctions of this group The second group includes 43,5% of the respondents who feel worried about the security of the world wide web, as Internet corporations can control their communication (17,3% – fully agree, 26,2% – agree). In this situation there is correlation (Spearman’s coefficient) with the following variables: «Internet and leisure activities» (0,089*); «reading blogs» (0,085*); «playing online games» (0,117**); «reading content on religious sites» (0,109*). The number of those respondents who feel worried about the control over users exerted by authorities is 38,7%, which is 5% lower ( 16% – fully agree, (22,7%) – agree) (Diagram 45). There are correlation relations with the variables: «active protection of personal data online» (0,142**);«commenting activity on discussion forums» (0,124**); «reading blogs» (0,092*); «playing online games» (0,128**);«reading content on religious sites» (0,132**). The users’ anxiety about such control is connected with their Internet activity and a type of content (the latter is not necessarily political) they prefer. Evidently, the users’ anxiety about the control exerted by authorities is mainly connected with issues of copy right (which is indirectly explained by the users’ preferences (mainly fun content).

1 ** – correlation is valuable for 0,01; * – correlation is valuable for 0,05.

www.mggu-sh.ru Diagram 45 Security of open communication on the Internet

I am worried about Strongly companies checking 10 17,8 23,3 26,2 17,3 disagree what I do online

Somewhat I am worried about the disagree government checking 11,5 22 22,2 22,7 16 what I do online Neutral / Undecided On the Internet, it is safe to say whatever you 9,6 21,8 29,6 24,7 9,1 think about politics Somewhat agree

In general, I feel comfortable saying 7,5 15,8 30,2 30 11,3 whatever I think about Strongly agree politics

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Please tell me how much you agree or disagree with each of these statements?, %

www.mggu-sh.ru USERS’ PERCEPTION OF FREEDOM AND SECURITY IN THE INTERNET Attitudes to the increasing control over the Internet communication The majority of young users in Russia (56,6%) support the opinion «People should not be limited in their right to criticise the government» (26,4 % – fully agree, 30,2% – agree) – Diagram, 46. Among those who support the absence of any restrictions to this criticism there are more respondents who belong to the 25-30 age group (Diagram 47). The choice of this position correlates with such variables as: «the evaluation of opportunities for the implementation of political rights and freedoms»: -(0,123**); «the evaluation of opportunities for discussion of government policies»– (0,192**); «the Internet and leisure activities»– (0,084*); «anxiety about insecurity of personal data online from authorities» – (0,105*); «anxiety about the insecurity of personal data online from Internet corporations – (0,098*); «news search» – (-0,098*); «visiting social networks» – (-0,119**); «information check on a particular fact» (-0,084*)1. One fourth of the respondents (27,6%) support the statement «the government should exert more control over the Internet, than they do it now» – 9,1% – fully agree, 18,5% – agree), one third of the respondents (35,6%) consider it unacceptable – (15,6% – fully disagree, 20% – disagree) – Diagram 46. Taking into consideration the age differentiation, this opinion is mainly expressed by the respondents from the senior age group (25-30) – Diagram 48. There are significant correlations with a number of variables: «television as a source of information» – (0,120**); «traditional print media as a source of information» – (0,099*); «Internet as a source of entertainment» (-0,127**); «anxiety about insecurity of personal data online from authorities» – (– 0,091*); «anxiety about the insecurity of personal data online from Internet corporations» -(-0,116**); «anxiety about the insecurity of personal data is exaggerated» – (-0,087*); «I have nothing to hide» – (-0,085*); «Generally, I feel comfortable openly expressing what I think about the government policy on the Internet» – (0,141**); «I feel comfortable when I openly express what I think about certain politicians online» – (0,090*).Consequently, the idea that authorities should have more control over Internet communication is supported by those young people who represent the so-called « TV Party»

1 ** – correlation is valuable for 0,01; * – correlation is valuable for 0,05.

www.mggu-sh.ru Diagram 46 Diagram 47 Limits of freedom on the Internet The attitudes towards open criticism of government on the Internet

Strongly The government should disagree regulate the Internet 15,6 20 22,2 18,5 9,1 more than it does now Somewhat disagree

It is okay for people to express their ideas on Neutral / 16 27,6 22,6 18,7 10,9 the Internet, even if they Undecided are extreme

Somewhat agree

People should be free to criticize their 7,6 12,2 20,9 30,2 26,4 government on the Strongly agree Internet

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Please tell me how much you agree or disagree with each of these statements?, %

Diagram 48 The attitude towards the increasing control of the government over Internet communication

www.mggu-sh.ru PERCEPTION OF BOUNDARIES OF FREEDOM AND SECURITY IN THE INTERNET

Attitude to extremist statements on the Internet A significant aspect of perception of boundaries of online freedom and security by Russian young users is an attitude to the freedom of extremist statements on the Internet. Approximately one third of the respondents support absolute freedom of speech on the In- ternet, i.e. they express their consent with the following point of view “It is absolutely normal to allow people to publicize their ideas freely even if these ideas are extremist” (the total of 29,6 % is made up by the “absolutely agree” responses (10,9 %) + “agree” responses (18,7 %)). The amount of those respondents who do not share this point of view is larger by 17 % (the total of 43,6 % is made up by “absolutely do not agree” (16 %) + “do not agree” (27,6 %)). There are 22,6 % of those respondents who failed to give a definite answer (diagram 46). Among those respondents who do not agree with the abovementioned statement the percentage of people aged from 25 to 30 is slightly larger (diagram 49). There were identifies some significant correlation dependences (Spirman’s correlation index) with the following variables: “the Inter- net as a source of information” (0,103*); “The Internet as a source of entertainment” (0,090*); “People should not be anyhow restrained in their right to criticize the government on the Internet” (0,369**); “Generally speaking, I feel comfortable expressing my opinion about the governmental policy freely on the Internet” (0,201**); “I feel secure expressing my opinion about definite politicians freely on the Internet” (0,172**); “I am concerned about the fact that the government can trace everything which is done by every person on the Internet” (0,287**); “I am concerned about the fact that companies can trace everything which is done by every person on the Internet” (0,153**). Consequently, “absolute freedom of speech” on the Internet is supported by those young users who are primarily focused on criticizing the authorities and who practice expressing their opinions about various politicians and politics in their everyday online communication. The research tools do not allow to identify ideological characteristics of this part of the nominal “Internet party” which is an important task for further stages of the project implementation. Interrelationships between perception of political subjectness in the Internet by the users and the level of tolerance toward extremist statements were also identified. Those respondents who share the opinion that the Internet enhances opportunities for realization and application of political rights and freedoms do not demonstrate any tolerant attitude to the extremist discourse on the worldwide web (diagram 50). Among the users who support the idea that “the Internet provides more opportunities to discuss various actions taken by the government” there are more people who do not tolerate freedom of online extremist statements (diagram 51). There is the same situation with those respondents who assert that the Internet helps to gain a better understanding of politicians’ activities (diagram 52). There can be observed approximately equal proportions of the respondents who support the opinion that “Thanks to the

www.mggu-sh.ru Internet, civil servants and politicians have to pay more attention to what people like you think about them”: among them there are people who demonstrate tolerant attitude to online extremist statements and also people who reject such an opportunity (diagram 53). Consequently, tolerance toward the extremist discourse is to a lesser extent connected with the focus made by Russian young people on political functions of the Internet and on positive perception of political subjectness online; however, to a larger extent it reflects critical attitude to the activities of the civil servants and politicians.

Diagram 46 Diagram 49 Boundaries of freedom on the Internet Attitude to absolute freedom of speech on the Internet It is absolutely normal to let people express

Absolutely do their opinions freely even if they are extremist The government should control the Internet not agree 15,6 20 22,2 18,5 9,1 stricter than it does now Do not agree

It is absolutely normal to let people express their Difficult to say opinions freely even if the ideas are extremist 16 27,6 22,6 18,7 10,9

Agree

People should not be restrained in their right to criticize the government 7,6 12,2 20,9 30,2 26,4 on the Internet Absolutely agree

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

To what extent do you agree / do not agree with the following statements? (for all participants of the opinion poll) In % according to the marked variable

www.mggu-sh.ru Diagram 50 Diagram 52 Interdependence between tolerant attitude toward online Interdependence between tolerant attitude toward online extremist statements and perception of political subjectness extremist statements and perception of political subjectness

Diagram 51 Diagram 53 Interdependence between tolerant attitude toward online Interdependence between tolerant attitude toward online extremist statements and perception of political subjectness extremist statements and perception of political subjectness

www.mggu-sh.ru CONCLUSIONS ON THE BASIS OF THE RESULTS OF THE MASS OPINION POLL Having analyzed quantitative and qualitative technological characteristics of the Internet communication of Russian young people and having compared the findings of this research with the outcomes of the World Internet Project in Russia-2012, we can draw a conclusion that the young audience of the Internet is characterized by a higher activity and a more substantial amount of technologies in the online communication. We can identify as a common tendency the fact that, on the whole, young people (as all Russian users) tend to consume, copy and distribute the Internet content rather than to create it themselves. Russian young users are characterized by a focus on consuming online news information because the Internet is regarded as the dominant source of entertainment and information. Russian young users daily resort to diverse roles on the global network by participating in online games, studying online, doing the online shopping, effecting online payments, downloading entertaining content, surfing the net etc. The larger is the scope of the Internet communication chosen by users, the larger is the number of various roles and corresponding needs which they have in the virtual reality. On the average, focus on political functions of the Internet is expressed significantly higher among Russian young users in comparison with other age groups. The majority of young people demonstrate a positive attitude to the realization of political subjectness on the global network. They understand political subjectness primarily as enhancing opportunities to defend political rights and freedoms, to effect open political communication. Russian young users are quite reserved in assessing the potential of the public opinion which is being formed on the global network to have any significant impact on the activities of the authorities. In comparison with all other population groups in Russia, young users demonstrate a high level of trust toward credibility and reliability of the Internet content which, in turn, has a direct influence on positive perception of political subjectness of the Internet users. This fact makes a dissonance with negative assessment of confidentiality of personal information and lack of privacy protection on the Internet. Diverse and even controversial assessment of boundaries of both online freedom and security divide the audience of young users in two groups. It is necessary to point out that such a differentiation of opinions reflects not only a high degree of positive assessment of political subjectness, but rather a character of an Internet activity and types of the Internet content which are consumed by users. Feeling “insecure” is characteristic of those respondents who are primarily focused on entertaining functions of the Internet. Increase of the governmental control over the Internet communication is supported by those Russian young users who can be provisionally referred to “the party of the TV-set”. Whereas, “absolute freedom of speech” is supported by those young users who, in

www.mggu-sh.ru the first place, seek to criticize the authorities and to express their own opinions on the Internet about politicians and politics in their everyday life. Tolerance toward the extremist discourse is to a lesser extent determined by the focus of young people on political functions of the Internet and on positive perception of political subjectness online. To a larger extent it reflects critical attitude toward the actions of civil servants and politicians.

www.mggu-sh.ru CLUSTER ANALYSIS OF THE DATA ARRAY Typology of the Russian young people who took part in the the other hand, dominance of the worldwide web as the main mass opinion poll (2013. N=1100) was conducted with the help source of information, which was identified in young people, of the K-means cluster SPSS for Windows 17.0 method. Applica- obviously affects the system of values and needs of the younger tion of this type of cluster analysis is determined by a substantial generation. amount of research cases for typology as well as by a rank codification of questions which serve as the basis for creating clusters, Table 1 which justifies the expediency of the abovementioned method. Types of the Russian young people according to the The analysis resulted in identification of 5 clusters on the basis of properties of spiritual values and online behavior the properties of spiritual values and objectives and of the online Clusters Specific weight (%) behavior (Table 1). Interpretation of these empirical types is based Pragmatic individuals 32,7 on reconsidering the theoretical conclusions which were made in the frames of numerous researches of the social portrait of the Contemplating individuals 12,7 younger generation carried out by the research teams of the Sociol- Microsocials 43,5 ogy Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences and of the Institute Macrosocials 6,2 1 of Social and Political Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences . Potential precarit 4,9 There are certain specific features of the Internet behavior of Total 100 the identified clusters of young people. The connection between Formation of the types of Russian young people is determined the spiritual values and a certain type of behavior is two-way. by several factors: There exists some interdependence between the existing spiri- – reproduction of values and moral references by the successive tual values and peculiarities of the informational behavior which generations; they induce. On the one hand, value priorities determine motives – specific properties of regional socio-economic, socio-political for using the global network and certain attitude toward the is- and socio-cultural realia; sues of confidentiality, credibility and control on the Internet. On – peculiarities of the contemporary gender contract in the Rus- 1 Gorshkov М.К., Sheregi F.E. Young people in Russia: sociological portrait. sian society; М.: IS RAS, 2010. 592p.; Zubok Ju.A., Chuprov V.I. Socio-cultural mechanisms of – characteristics of the Internet space as the dominating factor the formation of the young people’s attitude toward education // Sociological which influences the consciousness and behavior of modern Rus- studies. 2013. № 1. P. 78 – 85; Chuprov V.I. Sociology of young people. М.: sian young people. НОРМА, 2011. 335p.

www.mggu-sh.ru TYPOLOGY OF INTERNET USERS ACCORDING TO THE RESULTS OF THE DEEP THE INTERVIEW

Summing up the main results of the content-analysis carried out on the basis of the transcripts of the deep interview with young Russian people, we would like to point out that an advantage of the data generated with the help of the applied method lies in a higher heuristic potential of all hypothesis and conclusions which, in turn, enable the researchers to gain a better insight into the specific features of values and needs formation of the contemporary younger generation in Russia. Formation of the life values and goals of young people is primarily affected by their age and another criterion connected with it, namely, kind of employment. Thus, young people in their student period (younger than 25 years), whose dominant value is getting proper education, are focused on optimistic views on the image of their future and on opportunities of their social mobility. Moreover, they are also self-confident and motivated to achieve success which is perceived, in the first place, as social acknowledgement and recognition. Those young people who work after graduating from an educational institution of higher education express more balanced and mature views which are characteristic of people who face real life problems and have to solve them. Their life principles are formed under the influence of their striving to obtain financial stability in order to support their family. Life strategy of contemporary young people is formed differently in different federal districts as well as in cities and towns of different scale. Thus, problems of small towns predetermine in young people the existence of inner motivation to migrate to a larger city with a good infrastructure and a good labor market. Territorial proximity with the European countries as well as a more intensive internalization of the western values by young people who live in the Central and North-Western federal districts determine the dominance of practical values to utilize and to achieve. Traditions of the social and cultural regions of the Ural, Siberian, Far Eastern and Southern federal districts, which tend to preserve traditional and universal values of family life and interpersonal communication, determine in young people living there the dominance of microsocial values and objectives, which is proved by the findings of the mass opinion poll. Qualitative characteristics of the involvement of young Russian people into the Internet communication are determined, on the one hand, by their system of values, and, on the other hand, by the social and demographic criteria. Thus, young people from the Central and North-Western federal districts are pragmatically-minded, so their online activities are utilitarian and aim, for instance, at earning money. Whereas representatives of feminine and even masculine gender groups of young people living in the Southern and Far Eastern federal districts have interpersonal and family values and, consequently, are involved in the Internet communication in order to entertain and socialize “endlessly” there. Young representatives of the Northern Caucasus, Ural and Siberian federal districts are characterized by the values of self-reflection and learning about the world, therefore, they treat the Internet as a source of information and a means of publishing their own thoughts and ideas. Having said that, we can describe involvement in the Internet communication

www.mggu-sh.ru in terms of the forming Internet addiction which determines lack of a systematic approach as well as a superficial and fragmentary character of the cognitive part in the personality of a young person (young people don’t consider it important and necessary to allocate enough time in order to study large expanses of text information thoroughly and to interiorize new knowledge because they can get access to any needed fact online at any time).

www.mggu-sh.ru ТYPOLOGY OF INTERNET USERS ACCORDING TO THE RESULTS OF THE MASS OPINION POLL AND THE DEEP THE INTERVIEW

The distinguished correlations between the findings of the deep interview and the mass opinion poll on the types of value and socio- political profiles of young people determined the existence of four major kinds of political activity of the younger generation in Russia. Those young people who are focused on the traditional values of the family and interpersonal relationship mainly belong to the type which is indifferent to politics (the majority are primarily women from the Southern, Ural and Siberian federal districts). Pragmatically- minded young people most often stick to passive political online participation which is characterized by the support of the current government (the majority are citizens of the North-Eastern federal district). Guided by the values of the common good and macrosocial achievements young people most frequently become active centrists who are able to transfer their online-activity into offline actions, for instance, to become leaders of the branches of political parties for young people, to participate in political rallies held in support of the current reforms (the majority of these people are from the Ural, Siberian and Far Eastern federal districts). Passive oppositional strategy is characteristic of the following two types of young people: firstly, those who are focused on the values of self-reflection and learning about the world and, secondly, the so-called “potentially dangerous”. Having said that, it can be pointed out that at the moment their oppositional strategy is represented exclusively online and there is no explicit evidence that they are going totransfer their virtual political activity into offline actions (the majority of such passive opposition members are young people from the Central federal district).

www.mggu-sh.ru CYBERMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE DISCOURSE IN SOCIAL NETWORKS: PECULIARITIES OF THE APPLIED METHODS The IQBuzz program which is aimed at monitoring social media on the Internet was applied to meet the targets of the cybermetric analysis. Due to the mechanism of this program it can be successfully applied as an instrument for yielding empirical data in the frames of a socio-political research. With the help of the system of search queries the program carries out monitoring of the given social media and it also sorts out the collected sources (documents) depending on the tonality of the content in regard of the given topic. The abovementioned system enables the researchers not only to merely analyze the quantitative constituent part of the information, but also to take into consideration its emotional assessment by the user. Individual programming of the search criteria enables to take into account all peculiarities of the required documents, to exclude those that are not needed and to pay attention to the key elements of the required material. All documents which are collected by the program can be divided into the following groups: positive, negative, neutral and mixed. It is determined whether the analyzed text is positive or negative with the help of the so-called “signal” words which are emotionally colored. The advantage of the program lies in the fact that the researchers can individually make particular settings in order to determine the tonality of the document which, in turn, enables them to take into consideration all the specific characteristics of the analyzed object whether it is slang or specialized terminology. The flexible system of settings in this program allows to take into account such parameters as the language of the documents, the territorial location of the users and also to choose the required blog hosting and the type of the reflected documents. For instance, while monitoring the news information they can choose the type “news”. The collected documents on the topic of a given monitoring are uploaded into the base of the program. The researcher has a constant access to the information array. All documents for a certain time period can be viewed or grouped according to their blog hostings, tonality and users. The IQBuzz program offers a wide variety of reports such as dynamics of references to certain topics in time, distribution in regard of tonality of documents, classification according to sources (blog hostings), distribution on the basis of the document type. Furthermore, this program allows to identify activity of blogs and authors in respect of a certain analyzed topic (taking into consideration not only the number of all published messages on a given topic, but also the scope of the audience), which provides a good opportunity to examine the most active sources who might be opinion leaders on the Internet in a personified way. More than that, the program also analyzes those users who upload documents on the topic in question. In this case the program gives an opportunity to investigate distribution of such authors in accordance with their gender and age and to compare this distribution on the basis of topics and tonalities.

www.mggu-sh.ru FINDINGS OF THE CYBERMETRIC ANALYSIS OF VALUES IN THE DISCOURSE OF SOCIAL NEWTWORKS

Value categories which are discussed in social networks In order to meet the objectives of the cybermetric analysis the researchers applied the IQBuzz program which is aimed at monitoring various social media on the Internet. IQBuzz carries out monitoring of a considerable number of sources and platforms such as LiveInternet, LiveJournal, Facebook, Twitter, VKontanke, Yadex.Blogs as well as services of the video hostings RuTube and YouTube, various news, entertainment, specialized, thematic and regional web portals. The value which is most frequently referred to by users of the blogs on the Runet is “Family and children” (52 %) (diagram 54). The family value is traditionally placed on the top of the hierarchy of the value system of a typical Russian and is likely to strengthen its position every year. This tendency is confirmed by the dynamics which was registered in the research held by the Public Opinion Foun- dation. According to the findings of this research in 2000 34% of the respondents marked “the family” as the most significant notion, whereas in 2011 this index went up to 64%1. Diagram 54

1 Dominants № 24. 16.06.2011 // Public Opinion Foundation. – URL: http://bd.fom.ru/pdf/d24cpiusv11.pdf

www.mggu-sh.ru If we examine the tonality of the documents which reflect “the Diagram 56 family” value more thoroughly, we can observe that 7,5% is made up by messages with positive emotional assessment, though 0,5% still demonstrate a negative attitude (diagram 55). We should un- derline the fact that this is the least amount of negative tonality in comparison with other values. Thus, “the rest and entertainment” value shows 5% of positive references whereas there is 0,7 % of negative statements. Consequently, we can draw a conclusion that value of “the family and children” is described positively. Hav- ing said that, we would like to point out that the intensity of discussing values and assessing them in social networks significantly depend on belonging to a definite age group diagram( 56). Diagram 55

The hierarchy of the young Runet users is represented in the following way: the first place is traditionally occupied by the “family and children” value, the second one – by the “entertainment and rest” value and, finally, in the third place there is the “self-development” value. This system of values reflects the way of life and value preferences of young Russian people. While examining the distribution of values on the basis of the user’s age, we came to the conclusion that there can be distinguished two groups of users: from 16 up to 25 years old and from 26 up to 36 years old. Most actively involved in the Internet discourse are the users of the first group, from 16 up to 25 years old, which, in turn, is confirmed by the statistical data generated on the basis of the content of all Internet users.

www.mggu-sh.ru FINDINGS OF THE CYBERMETRIC ANALYSIS OF VALUES IN THE DISCOURSE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS

Description of the basic findings of the analysis of “the image of a hero” in the discourse of social networks Studying certain historic personalities is caused by the fact that their names were mentioned by the respondents during the deep interviews while discussing various personalities who they could take example by. Individuals who achieved significant results dominate among these personalities. Most often the respondents mentioned the names of Catherine the Great, Vladimir Putin, Alexander Nevsky and Iosif Stalin. The least discussed personalities are Ivan the Terrible, Suvorov and Kutuzov (diagram 57). Diagram 57

The IQBuzz program for monitoring the social media is made up by a system of metrics. According to the number of references per day, the most frequently discussed personality is Vladimir Putin which is quite natural taking into consideration the fact that he is a current politician and the acknowledged leader of the country. Among the personalities from the last century the most actively discussed leaders are Alexander Nevsky and Iosif Stalin (diagram 58).

www.mggu-sh.ru Diagram 58 in the personalities of Ivan the Terrible (10), Catherine the Great (18) and Stolypin (12). In the discourse of users aged from 26 up to 35 years the most frequently discussed are the following personalities: Peter the Great (44) and Iosif Stalin (168), whereas the least discussed is Stolypin (9), who, incidentally, is the least appealing and interesting for all age groups. Users aged from 36 up to 45 mention Peter the Great (20) and Alexander Nevsky (16) along with Stalin (78) (diagram 60). Diagram 60

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a leader of discussion in all age- groups of users (diagram 59). Diagram 59

Gender distribution demonstrated the following results: the abovementioned personalities are more frequently discussed among the masculine part of the users. This statement can be convincingly illustrated by the examples of such personalities as Stolypin (70,6 %), Vladimir Putin (76,8 %), Iosif Stalin (68,5 %) and Ivan the Terrible (63,2 %). All the abovementioned personalities are famous for their strong and tough character traits which It is important to point out that Iosif Stalin follows immediately account for the fact that they attract masculine users. The most after Vladimir Putin. Users who are aged from 16 up to 25 years popular personalities for discussions among women are Peter the most actively discuss the following personalities: Peter the Great Great (46,8 %) and Catherine the Great (43,2 %) who are consid- (45), Suvorov (25) and Stalin (188). Least of all they are interested ered to be innovative leaders launching reforms (diagram 61).

www.mggu-sh.ru Diagram 61 Having analyzed the findings of the monitoring of social networks we can draw the following conclusions: – The most frequently used personalities in the discourse of the social networks users are those people who are famous for their prominently strong character and will as well as for their tough and strict policy (Vladimir Putin, Iosif Stalin). To such personalities can also be referred innovative politicians who put forward progressive new ideas and whose biography abounds in unusual facts not only from their career, but also from their private life (Peter the Great and Catherine the Great). It was rather problematic to examine the distribution of tonality in the given gender and age groups due to the insufficient num- – No marked correlations were identified while examining the ber of documents which are characterized by an explicit tonality. age distribution. However, gender distribution demonstrates that Distribution of tonality can be seen in the general graph. Thus, discussions of the abovementioned personalities are more ac- according to the data which are gathered in the frames of the tively held by the masculine part of the users of social networks. monitoring Iosif Stalin (3,2%) and Vladimir Putin (2,6%) have the highest positive assessment. It is interesting to observe that in the The feminine part of the Runet gives preference to Peter the Great discourse of the social networks users the personalities of Vladimir and Catherine the Great. Putin and Iosif Stalin are often used together, more than that, they – General distribution of tonality helped to identify positive are sometimes compared (diagram 62). attitude toward Vladimir Putin, Iosif Stalin and Ivan the Terrible. Diagram 62 Vladimir Putin and Ivan the Terrible were highly positively as- sessed by the users which, in turn, correlates with the outcomes of the analysis of the deep interviews in which, for instance, the respondents treated Stalin as a person who was worth due respect.

www.mggu-sh.ru AFTERWORD Having analyzed the quantitative and technological aspects as well as the content of the Internet communication of young Russian users and having compared the findings of this research with the results of the World Internet Project in Russia-2012, we can draw a conclusion that the target audience of young users is characterized by substantial activity and technological effectiveness of online communication. There is a common trend that, like all Russian users in general, young people are more likely to consume, copy and disseminate Internet content, rather than create new one. Nevertheless, the younger generation typically tends to learn about news and events online, because the Internet can be identified as the major source of entertainment and information. Every day young Russian users resort to various parts on the global network in such activities as playing computer games, studying online, doing the shopping, effecting payments, downloading entertaining content, surfing the net etc. The larger is the scope of the Internet communication chosen by users, the larger is the number of roles and corresponding needs which they have in the virtual reality. On the whole, young Russian users are profoundly more conscious of the political functions of the Internet in comparison with other age groups. The majority of representatives of the younger generation have a positive attitude to the realization of one’s political subjectness on the global network understanding it primarily as enhancing opportunities for defending political rights and freedoms as well as for conducting open political communication. Nonetheless, young Russian users are more reserved in their assessment of the potential of the public opinion which is formed on the global net to have any significant impact on the decisions of the authorities. In comparison with other groups of citizens, young Internet users in Russia demonstrate a higher level of trust toward the credibility and reliability of the Internet content which, in turn, leads to positive perception of the political subjectness of the Internet users. This fact is discordant with the negative assessment of the confidentiality and insufficient protection of the privacy of all online activities. Contradictory assessment of the boundaries of online freedom and security divides the audience of young Russian users into supporters and opponents of restricting the freedom of the Internet communication. Differentiation of opinions doesn’t reflect only explicit expression of the positive assessment of one’s political subjectness, but rather the character of the Internet activity and types of the Internet content consumed by users. Those respondents who are focused on entertainment, rather than on political functions, feel “insecure” online. The supporters of the increased control of the authorities over the Internet communication are made up by those young Russian users who can provisionally be referred to “the party of the TV-set”. The supporters of “the absolute freedom of speech” online are those

www.mggu-sh.ru Russian users who are primarily focused on criticizing the authorities and who are accustomed to expressing their views on politics and politicians in their routine everyday online communication. While tolerant attitude towards extremist discourse is to a lesser extent connected with the orientation of some young Russian users on the political functions of the Internet and on positive perception of the political subjectness online, it to a greater extent reflects critical attitude towards any actions taken by the authorities and politicians. Classification of the Russian young people who participated in the mass opinion poll was carried out with the help of the K-means cluster SPSS for Windows 17.0 method. Application of this kind of cluster analysis is determined by a significant amount of cases for investigating and classifying as well as by the rank codification of the questions which serve as the basis for clustering, which, in turn, justifies the expediency of the abovementioned method. The analysis resulted in distinguishing the following five clusters according to such characteristics as the system of values and involvement into the Internet communication: pragmatic individuals, contemplating individuals, microsocials, macrosocials, potential precariats. There is a two-way character of the interconnection between the system of values and involvement into the Internet communication. We can identify some interdependence between the existing spiritual values of young people and some peculiarities of their online behavior which are encouraged by these values. On the one hand, value priorities determine the motives for using the global network, attitude to the problems of confidentiality, credibility and control on the Internet. On the other hand, the identified dominance of the global network as the leading source of information obviously affects the system of values and needs of the younger generation. Summing up the main findings of the qualitative content-analysis of the transcripts of the deep interviews with young Russians, we can point out the explicit advantage of the data, yielded with the help of the abovementioned method, because they have a higher heuristic potential for drawing conclusions which enable us to gain a better understanding of the specific characteristics of the values, needs and objectives formation typical for the contemporary young people: – major influence on the formation of life values and objectives is made by the age and by another criterion which is connected with age – type of employment: young people studying at educational institutions (people younger than 25 years), whose dominant value is getting proper education, are focused on optimistic perception of the future and opportunities of their social mobility, they are highly self-confident and determined to succeed in life, which mainly implies getting social respect and recognition. Young people who start working after graduating from an educational institution of higher education demonstrate a more considered and mature attitude which is characteristic of people who are exposed to real life problems and have to solve them. Their life principles are formed under the influence of their ambition to create a stable financial platform in order to support the family; – contemporary young people who live in different federal districts, regions and cities of different scale build up their life strategy differently. Thus, problems of small towns predetermine the existence of inner motivation in young people to migrate to a larger city

www.mggu-sh.ru with a good infrastructure and a good labor market. Territorial proximity with the European countries as well as a more intensive internalization of the western values by young people who live in the Central and North-Western federal districts determine the dominance of practical values to utilize and to achieve. Traditions of the social and cultural regions of the Ural, Siberian, Far Eastern and Southern federal districts, where people tend to preserve traditional and universal values of family life and interpersonal communication, determine the dominance of microsocial values and objectives in young people living there (it is proved by the findings of the mass opinion poll); – qualitative characteristics of the involvement of young Russian people in the Internet communication are determined, on the one hand, by their system of values, and, on the other hand, by the social and demographic criteria. Thus, young people from the Central and North-Western federal districts are pragmatically-minded, so their online activities are utilitarian and aim, for instance, at earning money. Whereas representatives of feminine and even masculine gender groups of young people living in the Southern and Far Eastern federal districts have interpersonal and family values and, consequently, are involved in the Internet communication in order to entertain and socialize there. Young representatives of the Northern Caucasus, Ural and Siberian federal districts are characterized by the values of self-reflection and learning about the world, therefore, they treat the Internet as a source of information and a means of publishing their own thoughts and ideas. Having said that, we can describe involvement into the Internet communication in terms of the forming Internet addiction which determines lack of systematic approach as well as the superficial and fragmentary character of the cognitive part in the personality of a young person (young people don’t consider it important and necessary to allocate enough time in order to study large expanses of text information thoroughly and to interiorize new knowledge because they can get access to any needed fact online at any time); – the identified correlations between the findings of the deep interviews and the mass opinion poll on the types of value and socio-political profiles of young people determined distinguishing four main kinds of social and political activity of the younger generation in Russia. Thus, those young people who are focused on such traditional values as family and interpersonal relationship mainly belong to a group which is indifferent to politics (the majority of them are young women from the Southern, Ural and Siberian federal districts). Pragmatically-minded young Russian people most often stick to a passive online political participation which is characterized by the support of the current government (the majority of them are representatives of the North-Western federal district). Guided by the values of common interest and macrosocial achievements, young people most often turn out to be active centrists who are capable of transferring their online activity into some offline actions such as to run branches of political parties aimed at young people, to participate in public rallies in order to support further implementation of some current reforms etc. (the majority of these people are made up by the citizens of the Ural, Siberian and Far Eastern federal districts). A passive opposing strategy is characteristic of two types of young people, namely, of those who are focused on the values of self-reflection and learning about the world and of the so-called “potentially dangerous” young people (potential precariat). Having said that, we would like to point out that their opposing strategy has been demonstrated exclusively online so far and currently no tendency to

www.mggu-sh.ru transfer their virtual activity into any offline actions is observed (the majority of such passively opposing citizens are young people from the Central federal district). The cybermetric analysis of the Internet discourse in the social networks (tools of Vk of the Internet server IQBuzz were applied) confirmed the existence of an interconnection between the representation of values of young Russian users online and offline (the hierarchies coincide). The value systems identified in the frames of the mass opinion poll and deep interviews are not only represented, but are also actively discussed in the social networks. Analogous interconnections were discovered while studying “the image of a hero” of the contemporary young people. The most often quoted and referred to people are, firstly, personalities with a prominently determined character, a strong will and a strict policy (for instance, Vladimir Putin, Iosif Stalin) and, secondly, innovative politicians who promote new progressive ideas and whose biographies attract and fascinate young people by some unusual facts of their professional and private life (Peter the Great and Catherine the Great). Those were the factors which were mentioned by the respondents of the deep interviews while accounting for their choice of the personality who they would like to take example by. Achieving the goals of the first stage of the project implementation resulted in confirmation of the hypothesis put forward in this research. Young people make up the nucleus of the active audience of users (from 14 up to 33 years). The dominant part of the users treat the Internet primarily as an intersubjective environment, a routine everyday space which is distanced from the political agenda. The political subjectness is still demonstrated in such situations which, firstly, actualize the significance of a certain value system in the hierarchy; secondly, actualize the potential “policy networks” of the users’ interaction in the network; thirdly, increase the activity of the reference group/leaders which is expressed in the intensity of usage of significant value notions and categories in the discourse. Young Russian users reproduce a mobilizing model of the political behavior in the space of the global network by consuming, copying and distributing some content. In the meantime, the speed of circulation of “collective concepts”, interpersonal “agendas”, patterns (examples of behavior), demonstration of the position of a “generalized other” (“likes”, “reposts”, “friendbands” etc.), making the collective actions in referential communities of social networks routine – all these features significantly reduce the length of the preparation process for a mobilized action. From the point of view of both technology and content, further development of the Internet will result in processes of deepening the differentiation of values of users and non-users; diversification of the types of value preferences will, first of all, reflect the scope and format of online communication which are chosen by a user.

www.mggu-sh.ru MASTER’S DEGREE PROGRAM “SOCIOLOGY OF THE INTERNET” Studying on the Master’s degree program at the Sholokhov Moscow State University for the Humanities offers a unique opportunity to become a high-flyer and a professional who can efficiently provide sociological monitoring and research of the constantly growing market of telecommunication systems. Creation and promotion of networking images of political leaders and brands of various commercial companies on the Internet, managing online reputation, analytical analysis based on the cybermetric methods – all these basic skills can be acquired within the frames of the Master’s degree program “Sociology of the Internet”.

Characteristics of the educational process: The Master’s degree program “Sociology of the Internet” is carried out in cooperation with the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (WCIOM). The teaching personnel comprises leading social scientists from Russia, the USA, Italy, Republic of South Africa and other countries. Only those students who study in our Master’s program will be able to participate in the international research project – World Internet Project. There are also additional platforms for our students to acquire and master professional competences such as the Center of Cyberpolitics and Applied Political Studies and the Laboratory of Sociology of the Internet.

Professional competences: In the educational process of the Master’s degree program in sociology at the Sholokhov Moscow State University for the Humanities special attention is given to the development of the following professional competences: – skills of working out a program for any sociological research; – skills of implementing various methods of the applied sociology in the studies of the virtual reality; – skills of applying professional programs for statistic data analysis; – skills of implementing cybermetric tools in the analysis of the Internet; – skills of analyzing, promoting and predicting networking images and brands of political leaders, parties and commercial companies.

www.mggu-sh.ru sults and methods in various areas of social computing. Moreover, ISC-14 will also pay essential attention to encourage students and young scientists particularly from Russia to be widely involved in research of various scientific and practical issues within the scope of this conference. Dear colleagues, We would like to invite you to the 3d International Conference Main topics: on Social Computing: Fundamentals, Development Technolo- • Digital Social Research. gies, Social and Humanities Effects (ISC-14)to be held at the Sho- • Online Social Networks . lokhov Moscow State University for the Humanities (9, Ryazanskiy • Social computing technologies in Politics and Government. prospect, Moscow, Russia) on 18-19 September 2014 (http://mg- • Humanitarian effects of social computing: cyberspace as a gu-sh.ru/isc/isc-14). particular social, psychological and cultural environment. • Social computing and New Media. Organizing Committee: • The Internet and Privacy. • Institute for High-Hume Technologies in Social Computing • World Internet Project in Russia: research strategy. (www.mggu-sh.ru/isc) • Centre of Cyberpolitics and Applied Political Research More information is available on the conference website www.mggu-sh.ru/isc. Co-organizer: • Russian Development Agency Information Society «RARIO» www.rario.ru. • Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) www. wciom.ru. • St. Petersburg Institute for Informatics and Automation of the Russian Academy of Sciences www.spiiras.nw.ru.

Conference goals: 3d International Conference Social Computing: Fundamentals, Development Technologies, Social and Humanities Effects (ISC-14) is a forum bringing together researchers and practitioners from all countries, disciplines and applications to exchange ideas, re-

www.mggu-sh.ru WRITERS

Project supervisor – Vladimir Nechaev, Doctor of Political Science; Undergraduate student in Political Science – Dmitriy Samarin rector, Sholokhov Moscow State University for Humanities; vice-presi- Undergraduate student in Political Science – Maksim Kovalev dent, Russian Association of Political Science. Statistics and graphical data interpretation – Olga Shumilova, PhD Research program and data processing – Elena Brodovskaya, Doc- in Political Science, associate professor, Chair of Sociology and Political tor of Political Science; head of the Chair of Politics (Institute of Politics, Science, Tula State University Law and Social Development); head of the Centre of Cyber politics and Applied Political Research, Sholokhov Moscow State University for Hu- Translation – Ekaterina Mashurova manities. Design – Ekaterina Ostryanina Clusterisation and typological analysis of the in-depth interviews – Anna Dombrovskaya, PhD in Social Science, senior researcher (Insti- Transcription of in-depth interviews, cybermetric analysis of social tute of High Hume Technologies in Social Computing Sholokhov Mos- networks – Anastasia Vakhromeeva, researcher of Institute of High cow State University for Humanities. Hume Technologies in Social Computing, Moscow State University named after M.A. Sholokhov Field research – Elena Brodovskaya, Doctor of Political Science, head of the Chair of Politics (Institute of Politics, Law and Social Development). Project partners – Federal Agency of Youth Policy, Ministry of Educa- head of the Centre of Cyber politics and Applied Political Research, Sho- tion and Science of RF, Russian Public opinion Research Centre, research lokhov Moscow State University for Humanities; – Oksana Dmitrieva – committees in political sociology, Russian association of Political Sci- sociologist, director, Institute of High Hume Technologies in Social Com- ence, Russian Sociologists Society. puting, Sholokhov Moscow State University for Humanities . Project financing – grant «Influence of Internet communication on Working group of students participating in the field research, value orientations of young people in Russia» МД-7540.2013.6 provided Sholokhov Moscow State University for Humanities by the Grants Council under the President of RF. Graduate student in political Science – Alevtina Novikova CONTACT INFORMATION Graduate student in political Science – Mikhail Belyauskas 16-18, Verkhnyaya Radishchevskaya street, Graduate student Science – Ilya Ivanov Moscow, Russia Graduate student Science – Aleksey Maksimenko tel: 8 (495) 647 44 77 Graduate student – Ekaterina Ishchuk e-mail: [email protected], [email protected]