Abstract
Youth remains one of the most active groups of Internet users. The purpose of the study is to identify the features of the use of various social networks, Internet channels and messengers in online political communication of young people from Russian megacities. The research paper presents the results of an online survey of this socio-demographic group conducted in January 2021 among roughly 1700 respondents from 17 Russian megacities as well as the results of an expert survey dated January 2021, namely, non-standardized expert interviews with 21 experts, including scholars, political technologists, government officials, members of political organizations and civil activists. Every fourth young respondent spends over 8 hours in the Internet space daily with about 43% of all young people spending from 4 to 8 hours. Social networks such as VKontakte (91.4%), Instagram (70.6%), YouTube Internet channel (74.9%), WhatsApp (66.4%) and Telegram (59.2%) are most in demand. The interest in Tik Tok is gradually growing (38.8%). Experts believe that the promising channel of online political communication with the aim of online political mobilization is the social network Clubhouse, which allows group voice chats and a strict selection of group members, but does not allow direct recording. Only every fourth representative of young people shows a high interest in the political situation. About 45% use Emoji to assess posts on a political topic, but only every fourth respondent gives comments and discusses political problems. Every fourth representative of young people does not take any political actions in the online space.
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