Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.22572/mi.32.1.2
Connected but Divided: Affective Publics and the Clash of Communities on Croatian Reddit in the Context of the 2024 Elections
Tamara Kunić
orcid.org/0000-0003-2084-6380
; Sveučilište VERN’
Luka Šikić
; Hrvatsko katoličko sveučilište
Sažetak
Digital platforms increasingly function as informal arenas of civic engagement in which citizens negotiate belonging, express social identities, and participate in public debate. This study examines Croatian Reddit communities as emerging digital publics that reflect broader patterns of social cohesion, exclusion, and participatory inequality. Drawing on theories of virtual communities and networked publics, this paper explores how Croatian Reddit communities communicate, construct boundaries, and express collective identities through sentiment patterns during a moment of heightened social salience: the 2024 Croatian parliamentary and European Parliament elections. Using a dataset of 11,503 Reddit comments collected from March to June 2024, we apply network analysis, sentiment analysis, and topic modelling to explore how communities interact, differentiate themselves, and confront one another.
Findings show that although communities discuss the same socially relevant topics, they differ in emotional climates, reflecting affective dynamics characteristic ofcontemporary digital publics. Structural segmentation is accompanied by varying levels of negativity, which may discourage participation among less assertive users and reproduce existing inequalities in civic engagement. At the same time, a small group of “connectors” interacts across multiple communities, indicating a limited yet important potential for integrative communication in a fragmented digital environment.
This study conceptualises these dynamics as a “clash of communities,” in which distinct groups remain separate yet continually engage in emotionally charged encounters. The findings highlight the importance of fostering inclusive communication norms, and recognising emotional dynamics as key factors shaping social cohesion and democratic participation in contemporary digital settings.
Ključne riječi
virtual communities; user comments; communication; clash of communities; Reddit
Hrčak ID:
347942
URI
Datum izdavanja:
17.6.2026.
Posjeta: 0 *