Visual and Semantic Techniques for Attracting the Attention of the Audience in the Social Media of the Republic of Tatarstan

The article explores popular visual social media formats, which use both their own social media functionality and available services for creating visual content. The purpose of the article is to study and systematize the visual formats of social media and user content, to identify their features and techniques for attracting audience attention. The empirical basis of the study was eleven media-affiliated and author’s Telegram channels reflecting the life of Kazan and the Republic of Tatarstan, as well as nine thematic publications of the VKontakte social network popular in the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan. The corpus of materials is represented by 2 647 published messages containing techniques for visually attracting the attention of the audience and those that did not have such. Chronological period: from 01.01.2024 to 01.03.2025. Using the methods of meaningful, visual-semantic and comparative analysis of user content publications, we have established the poverty of the visual formats used to provide information and techniques for attracting audience attention. In the studied Telegram channels, short video turned out to be the dominant visualization format. Photos (including photo collage, screenshots) prevailed in VKontakte groups, while short videos are still in second place. They enhanced expression, but they did not create new meanings.