The identifying the emotional content of texts as a social management tool: the case of COVID-19

The study examines the issues of information support of management activities using aggregated materials from social networks, reflecting the daily discourse of a particular problem for the analyzed period. The focus is made not only on the content side of these materials, but also on their emotional coloring, which traditionally is more important in the formation of social attitudes and behavioral patterns in the population. Possibilities of studying the emotional tone of CoViD-19 coverage and related phenomena in the context of social security are demonstrated. The contents and structure of the author’s methodology of determining the tone of the text on the basis of emotional assessment of keywords of the most popular social networks are presented. Using the expert evaluations method, the keywords are referred to five basic emotions which highlight the perception of the problem: anger, fear, disgust, sadness and joy. The results present the emotional dynamics of CoViD-19 problem perception in social networks and analyze its connection with changes in the epidemiological situation in the Russia Federation and Nizhny Novgorod region. Despite the substantive link to the problem of CoViD-19, the method is universal and can be applied to any topic that resonates in social networks. The conclusion is made that it is necessary to study the emotional aspect of the social problems perception as a tool for managing social processes and ensuring social security at the level of the country and the region.