Virtual Reunification? Diasporic Culture(s) on the Russian Internet

Henrike Schmidt, Katy Teubener, Nils Zurawski

Russian Internet - Internet in Russia? The global "nature" and narrative of the Internet seems to challenge the idea of closed entities and distinct definitions of cultural and national spaces. This is even more relevant with regard to the media use by Diasporic cultures as the Russian one. Does the use of the Internet by Russians living abroad lead to what one might call a virtual reunification? What conflicts of social and economical status or value patterns might occur? In our article we explore the shifting terminology of both "Russian Diaspora" and "Russian Internet" in their complex relationship and strive to illustrate the narratives of ubiquity, of the global and the local in a networked world, in a variety of case-studies and "screenshots" of the Russian Internet.

KEYWORDS

Russian Internet, Diasporic cultures, Cultural identity, Media and Globalisation, Narratives of Ubiquity