2021 State Duma elections: blogs, social networks, and party Identity in the virtual space

Abstract

This article provides a comprehensive review of the modern Internet practices and virtual platforms in the sphere of politics aimed at promotion of different forms of voting technologies. The authors analyze public strategies of the political parties and candidates in the course of election campaign for the 2021 State Duma elections using the example of electoral constituency of St. Petersburg. The subject of this research is the use of digital means of communication that form virtual identity of the electorate during the 2021 State Duma elections. The object of this research is the representation of party ideologies and civic “symbolic politics”  on the Internet based on the example of the popular video platforms YouTube, Tik-Tok as well as the traditional social networks Vkontakte and Facebook. The goal lies in the analysis of interaction of public actors with the audience (followers) in the course of conducting the electoral campaign. The scientific novelty of this article is substantiated by systematic and structural analysis of the scarce elements of virtual identity of Internet users on the example of electoral strategies of representation. The conclusion is drawn on the growing trends of building the so-called symbolic politics “from the bottom” and emergence of numerous actors that create sociopolitical content in the virtual space. The research methodology employs the content analysis of virtual communication channels, relying on the classical theory of symbolic politics and political identity. This theory can be modified by separate aspects of digitalization of the political subfield, which the modern researchers consider as virtual reality.