Analysis of the communication platforms of the social network "VKontakte", dealing with the topic of vaccination against COVID-19

Basina, Polina Alexandrovna
Analyst, Center for Applied Big Data Analysis, Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia
basina@data.tsu.ru

Dunaeva, Daria Olegovna
Analyst, Center for Applied Big Data Analysis, Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia
ddo@data.tsu.ru


Abstract
One of the topics discussed in recent years has been the mass vaccination of the population against COVID-19. Significant platforms were social networks, including VKontakte, which retains its popularity among Russians according to various analytical ratings. It should be noted that the undoubted advantage of social networks is their openness - users frankly express their opinion on issues of interest to them.
As part of the presented work, we pursued the goal of analyzing the communities that have become communication platforms in this thematic area. We assumed that the number of posts on the topic of vaccination against COVID-19 and user reactions to them depend on the type of community.
In the course of the work, an analysis was made of sources (communities) that publish information on the topic of vaccination according to various criteria: the share of publications about vaccination, the subject of content, digital footprints, the type of content published, the socio-demographic portrait of subscribers, the socio-demographic portrait of active users. According to the results of the study, it was found that there is no relationship between the type of community and the number of reports of vaccination. The topic of vaccination has become so popular recently that almost all communities write about it in various contexts, most often - information and news portals.

Keywords: big data, communication platforms, VKontakte, vaccination against COVID-19