The Vaccination Debate on the Social Network „Vkontakte“: А case of initially polarized online discourse
The Vaccination Debate on the Social Network „Vkontakte“: А case of initially polarized online discourse

Summary/Abstract: Over the last two years, vaccination has become one of the most discussed topics in the digital environment, as well as contributed to the formation of a noticeable polarized discourse. This paper presents an analysis of 55 communities of the popular Russian social network VKontakte (VK), where users post vaccination-related content. The analysis reveals an initial opposition between “pro-vaxxers” and “anti-vaxxers”. The names, statuses, descriptions (self-positioning elements), and narratives of these communities explicitly reflect their attitude towards vaccination. The authors revealed a change in the number of subscribers of pro-vaccination and anti-vaccination communities over the 2019-present period. Sociodemographic features of members were analyzed with big data anaysis tools. Profiles of “pro-vaxxers” and “anti-vaxxers” were designed. A network analysis of the pro-vaccination and anti-vaccination communities was performed and presented. It was concluded that the discourse of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination had been evolving as а confrontational one since the very beginning of the vaccination campaign. An assumption was made about the specifics and direction of possible change in the current evaccination discourse with a new unwarlike discourse, based on diversity.

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