In recent years, there has been a growing interest in cross-country comparative studies of multiple social networking site (SNS) platforms, and the aim of these studies is to uncover the impact of culture on the use of SNSs. The present article seeks to advance this line of research by drawing a distinction between platform difference and usage difference. It argues that culture affects both the design and use of an SNS platform. Through comparing and contrasting the personal profile settings of Facebook and Vkontakte, the article shows that the design features of these two SNS platforms reflect the cultural characteristics of the countries from which the platforms originated. The cultural patterns that are encoded in the design features of the platforms inevitably influence the use of the platforms. This finding suggests the need to control for platform difference while examining the impact of culture on usage difference in cross-country studies of multiple SNS platforms.
Contemporary research into the perception of environmental risks suffers from poor knowledge of risk communication in the local community and of how different ways of risk communication affect protest attitudes. This study aims to clarify communication strategies and practices used by members of local communities as a protest response to environmental threats. The work builds on the cultural theory developed by Douglas, Dake, Bremen, and others. This theory distinguishes between several cultural types (hierarchism, individualism, communitarianism, and egalitarianism), which differ in how environmental risks are perceived and what forms risk communication takes. The study investigates the case of the village of Nivenskoe in Russia’s Kaliningrad region where residents opposed the development of a potassium salt deposit. It is concluded that egalitarians and communitarians are more likely than hierarchists and individualists to participate in protests when a serious environmental threat arises. Respondents of all cultural types tend to trust information coming from their close social network, public figures, and environmentalists whereas people of business are trusted the least.
Social networks increasingly act as a full-fledged tool in the process of expressing one’s identity and self- presentation. The object of this study was the cross-platform self-presentation of Russian students in three different social networks: «VKontakte», «Facebook» and «Instagram». The authors consider cross-platformness in the article refers as the ability to simultaneously construct the desired impression in various Internet platforms, taking into account the specifics of their functionality and audience. The subject of the study is the motives and characteristics of cross-platform self-presentation in these social networks. The research method is in-depth interviews with students of Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (Kaliningrad, Russia). The paper carries out narrative analysis in a special software package Atlas.ti. The authors pay particular attention to the motivations for using social networks, as well as the similarities and differences in the pictures and content published on different virtual platforms. The main conclusion of this study is that social media users prefer different forms of self-presentations. The authors found that the nature of self-presentation is related both to the motives for using social networks and their technological capabilities. On Facebook, the prerequisite for the formation of self-presentation is the ability to communicate with a more serious and adult audience. In «VKontakte» – to be part of a community consisting mostly of close friends and peers. In «Instagram» – the visual perception of a person by a person. Along with this, the specificity of self-presentation is also affected by the different functionality of social networks. In particular, «Instagram» provides the most effective opportunities for account users to show events from their lives.
The article explores the role of the image of a region created in mass media in the formation of migration attitudes. Attention is drawn to the Kaliningrad region — a Russian exclave, whose population growth is solely due to migration. The purpose of the article is to determine the significance of the key media images of the Kaliningrad region in the decision-making process on the immigration of millennials and the reform generation (Radaev's concept of generations). Publications about the Kaliningrad Region in Russian media (2014—2018) (N =1,913) and semi-structured interviews (N =44) formed the empirical basis of the study. The main research methods are the analysis of publications and in-depth interviews with their subsequent processing using the Atlas.ti software. Five images of the Kaliningrad region constantly present in the Russian information space were identified: a region of international cooperation, a military outpost, an economically and touristically attractive region, and a region with a developing infrastructure. The most significant intergenerational differences were identified in relation to the Kaliningrad region as a military outpost and an economically attractive region. Compared with millennials, the reform generation is more inclined to perceive a military threat from other countries, therefore the security issue was a significant factor when deciding to relocate. Millennials showed greater awareness of what constitutes the image of an economically attractive region. It is concluded that the differences between millennials and the reform generation in assessing the significance of the media images of the Kaliningrad region are largely due to the specifics of migration motives. For millennials, the priority is employment opportunities and career growth whilst for the reform generation, it is finding a comfortable place to live in old age.
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