Newsmakers and news sources in the “hybrid media system” (the case of the full-scale Russian invasion coverage)

Abstract

The study aims to compare leading newsmakers’ and news sources’ usage in a professional mass media and a Telegram channel. The computer-assisted method of news processing was used. As a result, we discovered that audiences of both professional mass media and new media consume the same content in different forms, and they deal with mostly the same newsmakers, with more considerable attention towards personalities for the Telegram channel and with more quotes from other mass media and accurate references for the online mass media. Therefore, we concluded that the general observation about the coexistence of professional and new media, where the former publishes classic “hard” news and the latter entertains people with information, may be questioned.