Communities in Live Journal – new communication opportunities for subcultural groups and public initiatives: from cultural products exchange to social problems discussion

Abstract

Blogs are an area of the Internet that has seen significant growth in popularity in the new millennium, giving individuals a potential auditorium of thousands for content they post and produce themselves. However, little research has been done on the subcultures and interest groups that use the Russian blogosphere and new means of communication offered by this medium. Drawing on a study of fifteen LiveJournal (Zhivoi zhurnal) communities, this article examines how the blogosphere represents a new means for personal and group communication, in addition to enhancing possibilities for grassroots activitity, including activism online and in the ‘real world’.

Blogger communities are shown to be fertile ground for the discussion of a wide range of social interests and activities. One facet of this is the exchange of information on subculture interests such as music, film and social events, with bloggers using this form of communication to stage both larger and small-scale, more personal events such as flashmobs, parties or walks in their local communities. Another side of these ‘virtual cultural forums’ discussed in the article is their use as a space for alternative social and political discourses to be discussed: sometimes employing similar formats to traditional news media, the blogosphere offers the additional benefit of a lack of censorship, different levels of anonymity and a means of gathering evidence (e.g. through online photo albums or video content) on issues such as local water pollution. The author demonstrates how blogging communities can help consolidate a diverse range of subcultures and interest groups, from goths and gopniki to roleplaying gamers and ecological activists. The research concludes that, even if this form of social activity it is not always able to have a direct influence on legislators, blogger activity acts to reshape traditional hierarchies of access to power based on the press and television. It not only helps make the activities of such groups (including those with political aspects) more visible, but has the potential to enhance grassroots activism.