To Comment or Not to Comment: Communication Strategies of Social Media Commentators

Social media are discussion platforms where users not only express their own opinion but also actively interact, discussing posts among themselves. The paper focuses on communication strategies used by commentators of the Russian social network VKontakte. Using conversational and content analysis, we examine 4763 users’ comments published in “Meduza,” “Russia Today,” radio “Mayak,” “Novaya Gazeta,” “Lenta.ru,” “Rossiiskaya Gazeta” dedicated to different events. The results of this study indicate that the most common strategies are self-presentation, irony, expert, insult, error indication.