Practices of Space Popularization in Social Media (Case Study of NASA and Roscosmos)

The purpose of this research is to study how federal space agencies Roscosmos (Russia) and NASA (USA) choose to represent themselves on various social media platforms. This work describes which social media platforms the space agencies are represented on, which platforms can be considered the most active and popular, what content is presented there and whether it differs from platform to platform, it describes types of content presented and which content prevails. With the help of the inside sources we establish for the first time in academic research the spoken and unspoken rules that people who manage federal space agencies’ social platforms need to comply with. The case of astro/cosmonauts personal social media accounts is highlighted to show that even though those blogs appear personal they are included in federal space agencies’ complex social media systems, are regulated by the agencies.