Digital Crisis Discourse and Interpretive Conflict in Post-Soviet Societies: A Sociolinguistic Perspective From CIS Countries
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1609.14Keywords:
digital crisis communication, interpretive conflict, sociolinguistics, code-mixing, post-Soviet societiesAbstract
The relevance of this study stems from the growing conflict-generating potential of digital crisis communication in multilingual post-Soviet societies and from the limited development of its sociolinguistic analysis as an autonomous discursive phenomenon. The article aims to identify and describe stable sociolinguistic and discursive mechanisms that produce interpretive conflict in digital crisis communication, drawing on institutional and user-generated public discourse. The study follows a qualitative, interpretive-analytical approach and analyzes a multilingual corpus of 730 texts from open digital sources in Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. The methodology integrates sociolinguistic analysis, critical discourse analysis, and qualitative interpretation, with comparative attention to strategies of nomination, subjectivity, pragmatic orientation, and language code. The study advances a conceptualization of digital crisis communication as an autonomous arena of interpretive conflict shaped by linguistic and discursive asymmetries among actors in the digital public sphere. The findings show that conflictual interpretations recur through stable strategies, including emotive-evaluative, accusatory, and framing strategies, across crisis topics and national contexts. The results highlight language code, register, and public expression strategies as key factors in redistributing interpretive power and intensifying discursive tension in digitally multilingual settings.
References
Akturan, A. (2025). Organizational crisis management in the age of disinformation: Leadership, communication, and resilience, a systematic review. OPUS Journal of Society Research (Special Issue: Crisis Entangled – Reimagining the Social in Turbulent Times), 24–39. DOI: 10.26466/opusjsr.1778265
Al-omoush, K. S., Garrido, R., & Cañero, J. (2023). The impact of government use of social media and social media contradictions on trust in government and citizens’ attitudes in times of crisis. Journal of Business Research, 159, 113748. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.113748
An, S.-K., & Gower, K. K. (2009). How do the news media frame crises? A content analysis of crisis news coverage. Public Relations Review, 35(2), 107–112. DOI: 10.1016/j.pubrev.2009.01.010
Austin, L., Liu, B. F., & Jin, Y. (2012). How audiences seek out crisis information: Exploring the social-mediated crisis communication model. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 40(2), 188–207. DOI: 10.1080/00909882.2012.654498
Bakytzhanova, A., Zhanzhigitov, S., Bibekov, K., Yelubay, A., & Mussabayeva, A. (2025). Linguoconceptual nature of intellectual parameters in Kazakh legal discourse. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(7), 146–157. DOI: 10.30564/fls.v7i7.9973
Bundy, J., Pfarrer, M. D., Short, C. E., & Coombs, W. T. (2017). Crises and crisis management: Integration, interpretation, and research development. Journal of Management, 43(6), 1661–1692. DOI: 10.1177/0149206316680030
Cheng, Y. (2020). The social-mediated crisis communication research: Revisiting dialogue between organizations and publics in crises of China. Public Relations Review, 46(1), 101769. DOI: 10.1016/j.pubrev.2019.04.003
Cheng, Y., Wang, Y., & Kong, Y. (2022). The state of social-mediated crisis communication research through the lens of global scholars: An updated assessment. Public Relations Review, 48(2), 102172. DOI: 10.1016/j.pubrev.2022.102172
Coombs, W. T. (2007). Protecting organization reputations during a crisis: The development and application of situational crisis communication theory. Corporate Reputation Review, 10, 163–176. DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.crr.1550049
Coombs, W. T. (2019). Ongoing crisis communication: Planning, managing, and responding (5th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications.
Eismann, K., Posegga, O., & Fischbach, K. (2021). Opening organizational learning in crisis management: On the affordances of social media. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 30(4), 101692. DOI: 10.1016/j.jsis.2021.101692
Entman, R. M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51–58. DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1993.tb01304.x
Eriksson, M. (2018). Lessons for crisis communication on social media: A systematic review of what research tells the practice. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 12(5), 526–551. DOI: 10.1080/1553118X.2018.1510405
Frandsen, F., & Johansen, W. (2009). Institutionalizing crisis communication in the public sector: An explorative study in Danish municipalities. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 3(2), 102–115. DOI: 10.1080/15531180902805460
Golub, O. Y., & Sergeeva, E. V. (2020). Krizisnaya kommunikatsiya vlasti i obshchestva v sotsial'nykh media: opredelenie problemnykh zon [Crisis communication of power and society in social media: Identification of problem zones]. Izvestiya of Saratov University. Sociology. Politology, 20(3), 257–263. DOI: 10.18500/1818-9601-2020-20-3-257-263
Grigorieva, M. V. (2024). Sovremennye global'nye transformatsii obshchestvenno-politicheskogo prostranstva pod vliyaniem tsifrovykh informatsionno-kommunikatsionnykh tekhnologii [Contemporary global transformations of the socio-political space under the influence of digital information and communication technologies]. Izvestiya Samarskogo nauchnogo tsentra Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Sotsial'nye, gumanitarnye, mediko-biologicheskie naukim, 26(1), 61–70. DOI: 10.37313/2413-9645-2024-26-94-61-70
Heath, R. L., & Johansen, W. (Eds.). (2018). The International Encyclopedia of Strategic Communication. Wiley-Blackwell. DOI: 10.1002/9781119010722
Henman, P., & Graham, T. (2020). The structure of the online state: Towards a web ecology perspective. Government Information Quarterly, 37(2), 101440. DOI: 10.1016/j.giq.2019.101440
Hong, H. (2013). Government websites and social media’s influence on government-public relationships. Public Relations Review, 39(4), 346–356. DOI: 10.1016/j.pubrev.2013.07.007
Jiang, H., & Tang, X. (2022). Effects of local government social media use on citizen compliance during a crisis: Evidence from the COVID-19 crisis in China. Public Administration, 101(3), 843–864. DOI: 10.1111/padm.12845
Khetselius, V. E. (2019). Rol' sotsial'nykh media v sovremennykh politicheskikh protsessakh [The role of social media in contemporary political processes]. Kommunikologiya, 4(1), 73–78. Retrieved January 11, 2026, from https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/rol-sotsialnyh-media-v-sovremennyh-politicheskih-protsessah.pdf
Lerouge, R., Diaz Lema, M., & Arnaboldi, M. (2023). The role played by government communication on the level of public fear in social media: An investigation into the Covid-19 crisis in Italy. Government Information Quarterly, 40(2), 101798. DOI: 10.1016/j.giq.2022.101798
Malecki, K. M. C., Keating, J. A., & Safdar, N. (2021). Crisis communication and public perception of COVID-19 risk in the era of social media. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 72(4), 697–702. DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciaa758
Manias-Muñoz, I., Jin, Y., & Reber, B. H. (2019). The state of crisis communication research and education through the lens of crisis scholars: An international Delphi study. Public Relations Review, 45(4), 101797. DOI: 10.1016/j.pubrev.2019.101797
Oleshko, V., Mukhina, O., & Malik, O. (2023). Using propaganda methods and markers in modern user-generated content: An example of a discussion on COVID-19 vaccination in the Telegram chat. World of Media. Journal of Russian Media and Journalism Studies, (4), 117–134. DOI: 10.30547/worldofmedia.4.2023.6
Olsson Gardell, E. K. (2014). Crisis communication in public organisations: Dimensions of crisis communication revisited. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 22(2), 113–125. DOI: 10.1111/1468-5973.12047
Panagiotopoulos, P., Barnett, J., Bigdeli, A. Z., & Sams, S. (2016). Social media in emergency management: Twitter as a tool for communicating risks to the public. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 111, 86–96. DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2016.06.010
Papacharissi, Z. (2015). Affective Publics: Sentiment, Technology, and Politics. New York: Oxford University Press. Retrieved March 19, 2026, from https://books.google.com/books/about/Affective_Publics.html?id=ffMVDAAAQBAJ
Porumbescu, G. A. (2016). Linking public sector social media and e-government website use to trust in government. Government Information Quarterly, 33(2), 291–304. DOI: 10.1016/j.giq.2016.04.006
Shahbazi, M., & Bunker, D. (2024). Social media trust: Fighting misinformation in the time of crisis. International Journal of Information Management, 77, 102780. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2024.102780
Sharkov, F. I. (2020). Upravlenie krizisnymi kommunikatsiyami (analiz riskov i reagirovanie na ugrozy) [Managing crisis communications: Risk analysis and threat response]. Kommunikologiya, 6(4), 8–21. Retrieved January 11, 2026, from https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/upravlenie-krizisnymi-kommunikatsiyami-analiz-riskov-i-reagirovanie-na-ugrozy
Smirnova, O., Denissova, G., Gladkova, A., Steblovskaya, S., & Antipova, A. (2022). COVID-19 public discourse in Russia: Semantic mapping. World of Media. Journal of Russian Media and Journalism Studies, (2), 106–123. DOI: 10.30547/worldofmedia.2.2022.7
Startsev, A. A., & Grishanin, N. V. (2018). Sotsial'nye seti v protsesse kommunikatsii mezhdu vlast'yu i obshchestvom [Social networks in the communication process between government and society]. Kommunikologiya, 6(5), 108–119. DOI: 10.21453/2311-3065-2018-6-5-108-119
Svenbro, M., & Wester, M. (2023). Examining legitimacy in government agencies’ crisis communication. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 17(1), 54–73. DOI: 10.1080/1553118X.2022.2127358
Upadhyay, S., & Upadhyay, N. (2023). Mapping crisis communication in communication research: What we know and what we don’t know. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10, Article 632. DOI: 10.1057/s41599-023-02069-z
Utz, S., Schultz, F., & Glocka, S. (2013). Crisis communication online: How medium, crisis type and emotions affected public reactions in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Public Relations Review, 39(1), 40–46. DOI: 10.1016/j.pubrev.2012.09.010
Zhu, Z., Liu, Y., Kapucu, N., & Peng, Z. (2020). Online media and trust in government during crisis: The moderating role of sense of security. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 50, 101717. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101717
