Features of communication in the open groups of the VKontakte social network as a reflection of value orientations of young audience

The article presents peculiar features of communication process that has been initiated by students in the VKontakte social network and is devoted to discussions on university life. The focus groups for analysis came from major universities of various federal districts of the Russian Federation, the big number of participants in the groups ensures objective results of the research. The linguistic studies of group interactions were made with the support of social indexes of participants, in particular, short memos about each group that were composed by university administration; consideration to the content wall of the group and participation in making commentaries on the information presented; activity of the group members in the content filling and reacting to opinions; the topics raised by group members for discussion, language means that mark the content peculiarities. With the choice of the focus groups and language production analysis the author presented generally shared and variable features in communicating on academic life at various universities. The unity is viewed in the goals that urged group making, topics of the content, in the speech models used to deliver messages and commentaries, variability is seen in the activity level of participation in discussions and opinion exchanges. It is stated that open group communication oriented to university life reflects the following values and stand points of the students: their urge to study and be educated, the wish to become a certified specialist, desire to build the basement for further self-development; it was also noticed that the students consume information, take it into account, but don’t express their points of view.