MODERN TRENDS IN SOCIETY'S PERCEPTION OF THE ISSUE OF UNMANNED SYSTEMS IN THE INTERNET SPACE

Abstract

The article is devoted to examining contemporary aspects of modeling the impact of information operations within the Internet space on the Ukrainian society’s perception of issues in a wartime context. The purpose of the study is to dynamically assess trends in society’s perception of the issue of unmanned systems in the realities of the 21st-century Russian-Ukrainian war, viewed through the prism of the Internet space. In conducting this research, both general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, systematization, generalization, modeling) and applied methods (competitive intelligence techniques, information retrieval languages, Internet monitoring, content analysis of documents, and time series analysis) were employed. The study substantiates a quantitative assessment methodology for two dimensions—relevance and threat—of society’s perception of the unmanned systems issue, based on monitoring within the Internet space. Utilizing point-in-time Internet monitoring on the topic of unmanned systems through the InfoStream content analysis system, the study evaluates the 2024 weekly dynamics of societal attitudes toward this issue across two segments of the Internet space. The analysis identifies trends in the weekly indices of relevance and threat concerning unmanned systems from a societal perspective, noting discrepancies in the perception of unmanned systems across different Internet segments. Weekly relevance indices of this issue are consistently lower in media outlets than in social networks, whereas the level of societal resistance to unmanned systems appears higher in the media. The study also confirms the significant influence of the Telegram network on societal perceptions of the unmanned systems issue within the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The empirical findings on societal attitudes towards unmanned systems through the Internet space demonstrate the appropriateness of using reputation Internet metrics and competitive intelligence methods for accurate quantitative assessment of societal perception. Furthermore, these results underscore the necessity for continuous Internet monitoring to timely counteract Russian information influences within social networks.