The review of ‘mining’ in Russian media

In 2017, there was a sharp increase in the number of publications on the subject of ‘mining’ in Russian non-core media, which indicates the increased interest among non-professional audiences. This study relates the practice of mining crypto-currencies to the category of ‘unobtrusive’ issues. It gives the media the role of translator, which shapes public opinion. The purpose of this work is to identify the context in which the discussion about the ‘mining’ in noncore Russian media is immersed. Based on different sources, we conducted a quantitative content analysis and used joint mentions of categories on the topic of ‘mining’ to build the network analysis. Moreover, interviews with ‘miners’ were used for more correct interpretation. The results showed that the non-core Russian media pay close attention to the category of ‘regulation’ of ‘mining’, which is most often mentioned with the Central Bank and the President. Besides, the geographical specifics of ‘mining’ are focused mostly on Moscow, Moscow region, the cities of Siberia and some foreign countries (the USA, China). The analysis also showed that the presence and tightness of category links in the subject of ‘mining’ have common features with the concentration of Bitcoin nodes.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

A person counts once a day per paper. We keep no cookie and no address: a reader is a hash that changes every day. Any month under five reads shows no number.