Divided by a common web. Some characteristics of the Russian blogosphere

Ch. 3. P. 57–71.

Gusejnov G.

As a technology, the blogosphere emerged at roughly the same time in every part of the world, and is supported by technologies that spread at great speed, as a rule, irrespectively of national borders. Nonetheless, as with all new technological resources (such as the telephone and the car), their adaptation across the globe can be culturally specific. Access to virtual communication (a LiveJournal account, an email address) can enable a user to take up social roles that are not available to them in their life outside the internet.
To what extent can we use the Russian blogosphere as an example of either a society of detached fl âneurs, or as a “community of experience”? In order to answer this question, we need to map out the external offl ine boundaries of our subject matter, or, to be more precise, its border posts—those issues in public and political life which are actively depicted in both environments but which are most passionately discussed in the blogosphere and on social networking sites.

Keywords: интернет-коммуникация, blogs, блогосфера, Russian political discourse, blogosphere, блогеры, virtual communication, блоггинг, анализ блогов, коммуникация в интернете, рунет, Russian-Language Blogs, Runet, интернет-дискурс, virtual politics, политический язык, виртуальная политика

In book

Digital Russia: The Language, Culture and Politics of New Media Communication

L.: Routledge, 2014.