Members of Environmental Groups in Social Media: Digital Participation and Interests

Recently, social media has become a serious factor in the social life of citizens of Russia. Our research is devoted to the analysis of members of virtual groups created in the course of environmental conflicts in St. Petersburg. The study analyzed both digital participation and the interest of environmental group members in environmental and political issues. Members of virtual environmental groups were compared both with members of other protest virtual city groups, and with members of territorial virtual groups. The study showed a serious difference, both in digital participation and interest in environmental and political issues among members of different protest groups (both environmental and non-environmental) on the one hand and members of territorial groups on the other.