Analysis of approaches to study identification in social media

Abstract

The nature of the social influence of media on social processes, the production of virtual information practices, to study these processes currently actualizes the need to use modern new tools for collecting, processing and data analysis methods. The purpose of this work is to analyze the activity of university graduates in communities, their identification through the collection of data from social networks. Assessment of the activity of graduates in social networks was carried out by “downloading” messages and news from online university communities. For each message, activity labels (“likes”, reposts, comments) were collected and graduates of these universities were identified (reconciliation with the register of graduates was carried out). The focus of the analysis is on identifying the actions of graduates - loyalty in the media space and the dissemination of information about the university community. The main methodological guideline was the approach within the framework of the microsociological paradigm, in particular, the idea of symbolic interactionism. The heuristic potential of using big data to analyze the activity of university graduates in communities allows us to expand our methodological arsenal and overcome the limitations of existing traditional methods of collection and analysis. The main research methods: interface programming, social network analysis of user interaction in social media, Web-crawling using a search engine, statistical data processing. Results: the main digital strategies of university graduates are characterized by the expansion of the audience, the promotion of content caused by the interest of users depending on the focus of the group. Four types of alumni communities have been distinguished: groups that identify with social development, with charity, with scientific research, and education. The high average value of the activity index belongs to charitable foundations, followed by the community of culture and science. The lowest average value of the activity index is recorded in educational communities.