Thematic Mapping and Lexical-Semantic Analysis of Effective Online Petitions (Based on the Russian Segment of the Change.org Platform)

This research is aimed at thematic mapping of e-petitions in Russian language and analysis of lexical and semantic means used to create petitions that get the maximum response among citizens. The object of this study is the discourse of petitions in Russian language on the Change.org source. The subject of the research is thematic groups of petitions and lexical-semantic means of creating successful petitions in Russian language. During the study were analyzed 22452 thematic texts (e-petitions), placed on the resource Change.org in the period from 2012 to 2017. As research methods we used lexical-semantic analysis by the software AntConc and TopicMiner, content analysis of Lasswell, cluster analysis using the program SPSS Statistics 22, the method of mathematical statistics Pearson’s Chi- square, the method of mapping in Adobe Photoshop CC, and Python for unloading e-petitions from the Change.org platform. As a result of the study, 2 hypotheses were proved: 1. the problems of e-petitions in Russian language have a pronounced regional specificity depending on the Federal district, while the economic advanced territories support petitions that promote post-industrial values (according to R. Inglehart's theory); 2. there is a connection between the effectiveness of the petition and the choice of lexical and semantic means by the author of the petition. From the practical significance point of view, this study can be useful for citizens writing petitions, political experts working with the research of the digital democracy functioning.