The Sami network communities in the “ethnic” internet in Russia

The article deals with the topical problems associated with the identification and functioning of virtual network communities that form the segment of the “ethnic Internet”. The authors believe that an online community is defined as an ethnic one not through social categories, but through an empirical description of the content, meaning and purpose of information. For the first time, we consider the Kola Sami cyber communities on the material of the Russian social network VKontakte. The types of online groups are identified by their relation to offline communities and organizations. The functions of network communication are defined. They vary depending on the status of the participants. The adoption and transmission of cyber-ethnicity is the core function of all types of groups, including commercial ones. The study showed that virtual Sami communities represent traditional culture in many ways, but unevenly. The results show the significant efforts of the Sami activists aimed at the actualization of traditional culture and its use as an economic resource. The commercialization of Sami symbolism and its “profanity” cause heated debate. The analysis did not reveal nationalist tendencies. The legal aspects of Sami life, the problems of the cultural heritage transmission and the socialization of the Sami youth are of high importance for the communities.