Political metanarratives in social media: media representations and interpretative practices of “digital youth”

The article presents the results of a content analysis of VKontakte communities and Telegram channels (N = 1,134) targeting Russia’s “digital youth” (ages 14–22), which identified politically relevant narratives, as well as findings from their discussion in focused group interviews (N = 4; Moscow and Rostov-on-Don; university students and college students; ages 17–21). The empirical part of the study has a three-stage design: in 2022 (June 22–26), content and narrative analysis of social media publications were conducted; in 2023 (October 25–November 10), focus groups were held with the participation of students and college students; in 2024 (over the course of a year), a discourse analysis of focus group discussions was conducted. In the focus groups, respondents were asked to discuss two narratives: (1) state sovereignty and Russia’s strength; (2) the depiction of the external environment as a threat. Overall, the focus groups confirmed relatively stable value- and worldview-related orientations among representatives of “digital youth,” while also revealing a sharply negative response to straightforward, propagandistic modes of presenting information. Discussion of the two media representations examined in the focus groups shown that even when the thematic core is broadly recognizable (patriotism, sanctions), audiences react differently to the directive nature of the formulations. For some young people, the “poster-like” and “official” tone of the rhetoric becomes a source of rejection and triggers a boomerang effect; for others, the value-laden orientation of the message remains attractive even when its factual linkage to the presented material is weak.

Overall, the study finds that young audiences place a high value on “honest” content that allows for complexity and ambiguity, and they are critical of blunt propagandistic framing, especially when it is not supported by verifiable arguments and source references. The findings support the conclusion that the effectiveness of political metanarratives in social media is multi-subject and context-dependent: the same interpretive frame can simultaneously consolidate one segment of the audience while increasing the distancing of another. The practical significance of the study lies in clarification of the mechanisms through which political ideology is “translated” into the language of social-platform media texts, as well as in discussing the factors that shape the acceptance or rejection of political messages across different segments of “digital youth.”

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