Public assessment of the cultural sphere activity: social network data analysis

Modern trends in the scientific development require the search for new alternative tools for obtaining information. The article attempts to use social media data to supplement the information base for assessing the development of the regional cultural sphere, namely, to assess the adequacy of posts and comments in social networks as an additional source for studying the industry development. We chose the data of the popular social network VKontakte for analysis; the object of the study is the Vologda Region; the subject is the development of the region’s cultural sphere in different periods, which presumably have a negative and positive impact on its development and public assessment of changes, namely 5 years before the start of the national project “Culture”, during its operation and before the coronavirus pandemic, during the national project and pandemic restrictions, after the removal of restrictions and during the special initiatives to increase the attention of the public to the Vologda Region culture. According to the analysis results, the article concludes that managerial efforts influence the public assessment of the cultural sphere development, after the introduction of the national project “Culture” and afterwards the values of the index of posts and comments were not negative, while for 5 years before the beginning of the events the trends of public opinion were different. We concluded that such tools can be used to enrich the information base of the industry research, they are also informative to improve the quality of social sphere management.