Comparative Analysis of the Russian Social Media Platform and the Impact of Computational Propaganda

Bc. Sergei Pismennyi

Diplomová práce

Abstract:

The author studies the most popular social platform among Russian speakers using the mixed-methods approach in order to describe the impact that computational propaganda has on the platform itself as well as on the society built around the platform. In addition to this, the author also answers the question of whether a growing presence of computational propaganda can lead to the ultimate abandonment of the network on the part of its audience. Consequently, the author comes up to the conclusion that, on average, VK has a striking presence of social bots with 24.6% out of the total comments in six major communities – RIA, LIFE.RU, RT in Russian, REN TV, RBK and Lentach. The author also categorizes the tendency of generating comments with computational propaganda and draws the conclusion that a huge proportion of social bots on VK are run by human beings and not by artificial intelligence programs. As it turns out, social bots are much more active on working days rather than on weekends. In addition to this, after conducting a series of interpersonal interviews and analyzing the results, the author concludes that users are not able to fully abandon the network due to the personal attachment that they have to the network.

Keywords

discourse theory, Russian-speaking, VK, mixed-methods, comparative analysis, computational propaganda, political agenda

Jazyk práce: angličtina

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 27. 3. 2023

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Obhajoba proběhla 24. 5. 2023
• Vedoucí: John Phillip Sabou, Ph.D.
• Oponent: Alon Sela, externi

Česká zemědělská univerzita v Praze

Provozně ekonomická fakulta

Magisterský studijní program:
Economics and Management