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Bridging Narrative and Language Divide Online? Networked Languages, Soft-Power, and Language Brokering on Russian Social Media

Hornung, Maximilian LU (2025) SIMZ51 20251
Graduate School
Abstract
State-controlled social media platforms can result in authoritarian soft power assets when the users' mediated communication extends across borders. Especially in times of hostile conflict and narrative divide, these transnational communication networks – without the coordination of the authoritarian state – can promote authoritarian narratives to non-domestic audiences when multilingual users receive, translate, and project state-deployed content in their egocentric networks. In particular, individuals who bridge distant and linguistically distinct groups hold networked resources that – when leveraged – can add to the narrative’s persuasiveness. This thesis examines such language brokering practices on VKontakte, Russia’s largest social... (More)
State-controlled social media platforms can result in authoritarian soft power assets when the users' mediated communication extends across borders. Especially in times of hostile conflict and narrative divide, these transnational communication networks – without the coordination of the authoritarian state – can promote authoritarian narratives to non-domestic audiences when multilingual users receive, translate, and project state-deployed content in their egocentric networks. In particular, individuals who bridge distant and linguistically distinct groups hold networked resources that – when leveraged – can add to the narrative’s persuasiveness. This thesis examines such language brokering practices on VKontakte, Russia’s largest social networking site.
Narrative analysis aided by Structural Topic Modelling demonstrates that the German and Russian online publics interact as audiences and reproducers of Russian soft power, operationalizing user posts that link or attach content in the other language as brokered narrative accounts. Social Network Analysis and Exponential Random Graph Models thus provide novel insight into patterns of cross-language connections and the generative processes that give rise to networked language structures that place multilingual users in advantageous bridging positions between the German- and Russian-language publics.
By highlighting multi-actor, bottom-up language brokering practices, in which users translate and curate state-deployed narratives, this case study advances soft power research and draws attention to a largely overlooked gateway for authoritarian influence into Western societies. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Hornung, Maximilian LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
A Computational Study of Multilingual Networks and User Content on the VKontakte Social Networking Site
course
SIMZ51 20251
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Social Media, Networked Languages, Soft Power, Information Brokering, Multilingualism, Strategic Narratives, Russian Minorities, Cross-language, Social Network Analysis, Structural Topic Modeling (STM), Exponential Random Graph Model (ERGM)
language
English
id
9211991
date added to LUP
2025-09-19 13:33:56
date last changed
2025-09-19 13:33:56
@misc{9211991,
  abstract     = {{State-controlled social media platforms can result in authoritarian soft power assets when the users' mediated communication extends across borders. Especially in times of hostile conflict and narrative divide, these transnational communication networks – without the coordination of the authoritarian state – can promote authoritarian narratives to non-domestic audiences when multilingual users receive, translate, and project state-deployed content in their egocentric networks. In particular, individuals who bridge distant and linguistically distinct groups hold networked resources that – when leveraged – can add to the narrative’s persuasiveness. This thesis examines such language brokering practices on VKontakte, Russia’s largest social networking site.
Narrative analysis aided by Structural Topic Modelling demonstrates that the German and Russian online publics interact as audiences and reproducers of Russian soft power, operationalizing user posts that link or attach content in the other language as brokered narrative accounts. Social Network Analysis and Exponential Random Graph Models thus provide novel insight into patterns of cross-language connections and the generative processes that give rise to networked language structures that place multilingual users in advantageous bridging positions between the German- and Russian-language publics. 
By highlighting multi-actor, bottom-up language brokering practices, in which users translate and curate state-deployed narratives, this case study advances soft power research and draws attention to a largely overlooked gateway for authoritarian influence into Western societies.}},
  author       = {{Hornung, Maximilian}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Bridging Narrative and Language Divide Online? Networked Languages, Soft-Power, and Language Brokering on Russian Social Media}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}