Pandemic as Reflected in English and Russian

The article deals with verbal and non-verbal means of reflecting the present situation of pandemic in humour from linguo-cultural and intercultural point of view. The pandemic brought about numerous outbursts both in traditional mass media and social networks. One of its manifestations is a great number of jokes, anecdotes and memes about COVID-19. Various online platforms present innumerable humorous short texts. Mass media and social networks generate jokes, memes, anecdotes and caricatures. The corpus is drawn from popular social media platforms (Russian and English) and examined through derivational, stylistic, pragmatic and interpretative analyses. The paper explores the ways of creating a humorous effect on the word level (puns based on blends), on the level of short monologues and short dialogues (jokes). Special attention is paid to internet memes – multimodal (polycode) user-generated digital elements consisting of pictures or photos plus captions. The humorous effect in jokes is revealed by means of defeated expectancy when both primary and secondary meanings are manifested. The humorous effect in memes is achieved with the help of text reminiscences displayed by proper names and set phrases typical of various types of texts. The main topics distinguished in these humorous texts are quarantine, social distancing, mask wearing, hand washing and distance learning both in Russia and in English-speaking internet communities. It is shown that humour — even coronavirus and quarantine jokes — bring people together and help them feel connected in the face of adversity and uncertainty. The research will be continued by means of involving German and French humorous texts.

THE PROS AND PERILS OF INTERDEPENDENCE: FEMINIST ORGANIZING IN ONLINE GAME FORUMS

Within video game culture, where the medium's association with masculinity remains strong, it can be difficult for female players to connect with one another or to find safe spaces for play. Without support systems, many drop out of gaming over time. This indicates a need to build greater interdependencies between affected players, to provide interpersonal support and develop collective responses to gaming’s inequalities. Research in other areas suggests that targeted internet communities, such as Facebook groups, could provide space for feminist networking, consciousness-raising, and action, but it also reveals that such spaces have limits. Like games, the internet is often seen as masculinized, meaning explicitly feminist conversations and communities can draw disruptive trolls. Groups that police their boundaries to avoid these problems may implicitly prioritize some participants—i.e. straight, white, cisgender women—over others. This exploratory study analyzes top posts in two gaming forums—one general and one female-specific—to begin assessing if/how online communities for female gamers build interdependencies and raise feminist consciousness. More specifically, it assesses posts about harassment—which is often directed at female players as perceived “outsiders”—to determine if, when, and how toxicity is discussed as a general vs. a gendered problem, as well as if resulting discourses offer opportunities for consciousness-raising and collective action. This paper seeks to help marginalized players build stronger, more inclusive gaming and internet cultures.

Radical youth communities in the virtual space

Virtual space (Internet space) is a universal cross-border environment in which a considerable number of topics and concepts of destructive orientation among young people circulate and are popularized generated. The Internet has become one of the most important and effective means of communication in the modern world. Virtual communities usually become actors in information as well as political processes. The article deals with youth subcultural communications in radical Internet communities. First of all, these communications are based on concepts and patterns that arise in connection with the establishment as well as the implementation of xenophobic views and teachings. Political, ideological, racial, national, or religious hatred against any social, religious, or ethnic group, the promotion of homicidal scenarios, or even auto aggression becomes a pivotal key in consolidating users in such destructive communities. Overall, it can be concluded that the development of adverse opinions of communicative behavior relevant to other participants in virtual communities may well result in an enhanced sense of collective identity.

LOL-Trasianka: what Language do the Belarus Network Communities Use?

The article is devoted to LOL-trasianka – a network variety of mixed Belarus-Russian speech, which is actively used in Belarus Internet communities as a source of comic and a trigger for laughing communicative situations. It was found that laughter discourse in LOL-trasianka is characterized by deliberate distortion of the norms of both Russian and Belarus languages, hypertrophied interference, violation of ethical and etiquette rules of communication, demonstrative marginalization of the speech flow, general intention of irony and sarcasm. Sociolinguistic and communicative-discursive factors that determined the status of LOL-trasianka as the main code resource of Internet communities with an ironic-grotesque discourse of a socially critical orientation are a) stereotypes of marking the state Russian and Belarus languages and their variants; b) strengthening the symbolic function of the Belarus language; c) disdainful attitude towards mixed Belarus-Russian speech; d) expanding the scope of use of trasianka. It was found that in the communicative interaction of participants in the analyzed communities, LOL-trasianka performs a number of functions: creative (is a means of self-expression of participants), emotional expressive (allows the writer to convey a palette of emotions), integrative (unites members of the online community), identification (provides adequate perception and understanding each other’s intentions), interpretive (forms an alternative laughing reality), dissociative (expresses the protest of community members, dissatisfaction with the surrounding reality).

VALIDIZATION OF THE EMPIRICAL MODEL OF THE DYNAMICS OF INTEGRATION OF INTERNET COMMUNITIES

The article presents the results of a validating study carried out within the framework of the research under the grant "Building predictive models of the dynamics of the development of mobilization-type Internet communities". The aim of the study is to test the empirical model of integration of the Internet community in terms of the validity of the content and the validity of the criteria. The subject of the study is the validity of the criteria and integration factors identified in this model. The research methods are a survey of internal experts and a comparative analysis of assessments of the criteria and factors of integration of the specified model by external and internal experts. The results obtained allow us to conclude that it is correct to identify the criteria and factors for integrating the Internet community at the first stages of the research project. Differences in the assessment by two types of experts of the significance of some criteria and factors of integration of Internet communities receive the fixation of two observation positions - external and internal - as two types of explanation, namely, an understanding and descriptive explanation, respectively. The conducted research not only allows to introduce new criteria and factors of integration into the empirical model of integration of the Internet community, but also to draw an important theoretical conclusion. Online communities in their development manifest both the properties of real social groups and the properties of networks. These two methodological attitudes can be equally successfully applied in the analysis of online communities of the mobilization type. In the first case, analyzing the behavior of the online community as a social group, the dynamics of its mobilization function is mostly recorded. In the second case, analyzing the behavior of a community as a network, the dynamics of its volume and the dynamics of information potential are described to a greater extent.

4. Music 2.0

This chapter explains the role technology plays in all music: digital technology is simply its most recent manifestation. After reviewing the basics of digital sound, the chapter outlines the transformational effect of digital technology on musical culture. Particular attention is given to its impact on personal musical consumption, including the development of streaming libraries and music recommendation systems, and on the development of internet communities based on digital participation; a result has been the development of a distinctive ‘digital style’, illustrated for example by internet memes. Finally the chapter outlines the historical development of the music business, and the radical ways in which it has been—and is being—transformed by technology.

Varieties of Sharing

This chapter focuses on one element in the digitalisation of work: the forms and conditions of working in the so-called ‘sharing economy' (SE). Based on an analysis of 67 SE platforms, it distinguishes three segments, each of which constitutes a distinctive institutional sphere within the sharing economy: these are an ‘exchange and gift economy', a ‘niche and sideline economy', and the ‘platform economy'. In a further step, the study then identified and compared five dimensions of work within these segments: the type of activity, the form of compensation or recompense involved (monetary or non-monetary), skills and competencies required, the role of technology, and control mechanisms. Each segment is associated with a particular pattern of these dimensions. The chapter then discusses the shift in the traditionally understood determinants of work now observable in the sharing economy. While some of these determinants are being added to by new factors, others are being displaced by internet communities and the socio-technical structures and strategies of the platform providers.

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ROLE OF TERRITORIAL ONLINE COMMUNITIES

The research is devoted to the study of the topic of networkization of the socio-political space that is relevant in the context of the informatization of modern society. The author analyzes one of the displays of modern politics networkization in the paper. Its demonstration is associated with the growing social and political role of territorial Internet communities. The functioning of one of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet communities is studied as an example. The theoretical basis of the study is the theory of the information society and several concepts: the concept of the network community and the concept of the network identity. The paper uses content-analysis and comparative analysis as the applied analysis methods. The results of the study do not confirm the assumption that network communities' functioning contributes to an increased degree of civic engagement. However, the analysis confirms another assumption that public and political communication using the Internet community increases the efficiency of interaction between government and society, as it helps to improve the quality of feedback from the authorities. The author supposes that the display of the network identity factor affects the change in the degree of citizens' involvement in interaction with the authorities.