Representation of the topic of graffiti in urban virtual communities: outcomes of content analysis

The paper is devoted to the conclusions of an empirical research that was carried out by the authors for systematization of the most common strategies of representation of the topic of graffiti in contemporary urban virtual communities. Communication in urban virtual communities is considered by the authors as one of the most important variables that influence both the awareness of contemporary citizens about various phenomena of urban life, and the modality of their attitude towards these phenomena. Using the data of their own empirical research, the authors strive to identify and systematize specific strategies, that appear in urban virtual communities when reflecting the controversial topic of graffiti. The analysis allows the authors to identify the three most common strategies for representing this phenomenon in urban virtual communities: information, conceptualization, and marginalization. The remarkable thing is that these strategies characterize different trends in the way graffiti is presented in the Internet environment limited to a certain urban space, but they form the mainstream of this process.