Discursive fields of political parties in the online space during the electoral cycle of 2021

The article examines the formation of the discursive political space of the news field of four political parties: «United Russia», Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), Socialist Political Party «Just Russia - patriots - for the truth». We have identified and analyzed semantic units related to these associations and replicated in the information and news stream. The data for the study were uploaded from the websites of the TASS news agencies (80 thousand materials), RIA Novosti (65 thousand materials), Interfax (30 thousand materials) for the period from April 1, 2021 to July 1, 2021 in order to identify the most frequent trigger units defining the discursive field “party - electorate”. The study used content analysis, linguistic-discourse analysis, and network analytical visualization. Media text is seen as a reflection of the interests of the aspects of communication (political parties, state, users, electorate) and is used to define the social context of the electoral cycle. These findings can be taken into account to create an image of the parties in the electoral cycle. Conclusions obtained can be taken into account to create an image of the parties in the online space, which will find expression in the electorate's perception of these political actors.