Literature Review

The formation of the image of the state takes place through several channels. Building an image very often consists in changing negative perceptions to positive ones. So, for example, if the problem within the country becomes one of the reasons for the formation of a negative attitude

toward the state, then it is worth looking for approaches to changing attitudes to this problem.

Countries are trying to turn negative sides into a positive image.

There are the following main reasons why the formation of a positive national brand is one of the main strategic tasks of the state's international policy. First, the importance of the positive image of the country is conditioned by the process of globalization and, accordingly, the expansion of international relations. In such conditions, the negative attitude of the world community entails isolation of the country in the international arena, on the other hand, positive perception allows it to solve global problems using the help and support of other states (Tsygankov, 2010).

Secondly, the foreign policy image is necessary for the formation of constructive relations with other states, since the discrepancy with the political requirements of Western countries headed by the United States becomes an obstacle for integration into the international community and favorable cooperation in economic matters. Observance of democratic principles, political freedoms and human rights is the basic requirement that exists today among developed countries (Tsygankov, 2010).

Thirdly, the political image becomes a certain guarantee against foreign policy or military interference in the domestic policy of the country. Here we are talking about pressure from the leading countries of the West, especially the United States, which are trying to strengthen their influence in all regions. Thus, the main goal of pressure is the "third world" countries with underdeveloped economies and authoritarian regimes. It is difficult for these countries to find major political allies. However, the actions of developed countries are limited by public opinion, which, with the current development of communication, governments cannot ignore. Thus, the positive image of the country on the international arena provides additional levers of influence on the foreign policy of a foreign state, which is the goal of communication efforts.

Nowadays one of the most successful ways of communication between people, organizations et. is use of social media. Social media is a way of describing easy ways to create, publish and engage on the internet. People generally use the term to describe how organizations and individuals share content – text, video and pictures – and create conversations on the web. It is transforming the way that companies do business and individuals interact with each other. It is providing a voice for those who weren’t well heard before. Social media will change the way that councilors and councils interact with local people.

The notion of "social media" relatively appeared not long time ago in connection with the emergence of a number of new technologies (RSS, blogs, etc.) and Internet resources (online social networks, video sharing, etc.). The circle of these seemingly different phenomena is united by the fact that they all serve to facilitate the exchange of information between users in comparison with the technologies of the previous generation, when the Internet was mainly consisted of static pages.

Social media can gather an audience comparable in size to the audience of traditional media. Thus, the audience of the top 10 most popular Twitter microblogging service accounts have in overall more than 746 million followers regularly following updates of their idols, the leaders of this rating have over 90 million "followers" (Twittercounter).

The important thing to remember about social media is that it is social. It's about communication. It's about turning the transforming power of a printing press into people's hands.

Just as the ability to publish political leaflets and talk about them in coffee houses was the foundation of our liberal democracy, social media will have as much impact on how we manage and conduct business. Now anyone can publish and share their views, and, more importantly, can participate in a conversation with others about these views in just a few mouse clicks. Social networks are usually fairly open; which means that very different people can see, comment on, or

collaborate on materials. Tools are usually free or cheap and very often convenient to use, without requiring more skills than adding attachments to an email or creating a word document. And most importantly, social networks are designed for sharing, which means that it is very easy for people to redirect, link or even re-publish content. This means that there are very low barriers to entry for an exchange of views with a potentially very wide audience.

It is no doubt that in recent years there has been a huge increase in the governments' attention to social networks. Attention, first of all, to the dangers that they have in themselves. The latter provide an excellent opportunity to disseminate a wide variety of information, including one that may pose a threat to national security of any state. In this aspect, the events of the so-called

"Arab Spring" are very indicative, when social Internet networks played a role in the escalation of mass social meeting in the countries of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It is also worth mentioning the well-known "take Wall Street" actions, when the participants coordinated their actions through chat rooms and social networks. Europe is no less demonstrating to us examples of the relationship between protest and network activity.

So, the riots of 2005 in Paris were associated with the activities of the social network Skyrock, where the Protestants communicated with each other. In March 2007, during the ejectment of the "Youth House" in Copenhagen, several thousand anti-globalists from Germany, Norway, France, Sweden joined the Danish street pogrom. Coordination of their actions was carried out through social networks. During the summer riots in 2011 in Great Britain, arrests and prosecution for activities in social Internet networks have already become a typical reaction of the authorities. So in August 2011, British police arrested 20 people for organizing riots through smartphones and social networks.

1.3.2 Methodology

To answer research questions, this study analyzes posts and tweets from official pages of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on its social media accounts of Facebook and Twitter over exact period of time. Thematic analysis is employed. This form of analysis seeks to find overlying themes, which stem from the research corpus itself. One of the benefits of thematic analysis is its flexibility. Through its theoretical freedom, thematic analysis provides a flexible and useful research tool, which can potentially provide a rich and detailed, yet complex account of data. The data analyzed included tweets and Facebook posts published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on its English social media accounts between the October 1, and December 31, 2017. This time period is chosen as during this time it is noticed intensive Russian diplomatic efforts on a global scale, participating in negotiations over Ukrainian crisis, promoting a diplomatic solution to Syria's political crisis and war. All gathered tweets and Facebook post are read in purpose to identify main themes in social media accounts and what images of itself Russia tries to deliver to international community.

Braun & Clarke (2006) provided a six-phase guide which is a very useful framework for conducting thematic analysis. This paper was made with the conjunction of worked example.

Table 1. Braun & Clarke six-phase framework for doing a thematic analysis Step 1. Become familiar with the data

Step 2. Generate initial codes Step 3. Search for themes

Step 4. Review themes Step 5. Define themes Step 6. Write-up

The data was examined with initial codes and some of them were clearly fitted together into a theme. A theme was categorized by its significance. As the result three major topics were found in social media account of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A total of 380 tweets and 356 Facebook posts were published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia during the sampling period. Out of these, 291 Facebook posts and 157 tweets were analyzed and arranged in three overlying themes: Russia’s position on Ukrainian crisis, Russia’s relationship with the Arab world and projection of foreign publics. Facebook posts and tweets that were not part of the analysis had various subject matters that could not be categorized (e.g., pictures without specific news, remarks by President Putin or Sergey Lavrov on internal political events, diplomatic trivia questions, tweets that only have link to Facebook posts). The study is focused on textual analyses of post not including videos and pictures.

The following table presents the number of Facebook posts and tweets comprising each of the three themes identified as part of Russian efforts on public diplomacy.

Table 2. Shared proportions of themes in social accounts of MFA

Themes identified in social accounts of Russian Ministry

of Foreign Affairs

Number of Facebook posts Number of tweets

Russia’s position

Projection of foreign publics 25% 15%

Total 291 157

In the light of the above, the main thrust of the activity seems to be aimed at raising awareness of Russia's policy, its position, managing its national reputation and changing attitudes toward Russia. The research explored the ways in which the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs uses its social media accounts. Discussions focused on what themes were identified and what information Russia tries to deliver to audience: how they comment ongoing political events.

CHAPTER II.