Engagement of Russian Citizens in Public Participation Online

Abstract

The author examines the process of involving Russian citizens in public activity through digital communication by creating an online environment for information distribution, content sharing, and coordination of actions. The study explores the ways of engaging citizens in social and political forms of public participation in the view of increasing influence of digital communication. The study is aimed at determining the extent to which digital communication on social media influen­ces social participation and citizen engagement. The objectives of the study were to identify ways of engagement, appealing content, level of impact, users’ reactions, and preferred communities. The study method is based on networking and neo-behavioural approaches. The study employs the method of sociological online survey (N = 1,600) of social media users. The results of the study concluded that the involvement in social participation online is mostly through the consumption of information content, and less through targeted social media messages, which proved to be infrequent. Participation in social media communities for civic initiatives depends on a large extent on the focus of activities. Social media initiatives focused on solving citizen’s common problems, providing assistance to people in need, and environmental issues are the most popular among citizens. Politicized communities are the least attractive, revealing the dominant attitude among Russian citizens to avoid political participation.