DIGITAL JOURNALISM AS A NEW TYPE OF MEDIA ACTIVITY

Abstract

The relevance of the study is caused by the continuous transformation and innovations of the digital environment, the undefined categorical apparatus of digital journalism, and national peculiarities of the process of creating online journalistic discourse. The main purpose of the study is to identify the conceptual features of digital journalism and to highlight the communica-tion specificity of the designated type of media. Based on the studies of R. Salaverrí a, it is pro-posed to understand under digital journalism all types of journalism performed with the help of digital technologies, that is changeable social journalistic practice focused on a heterogeneous mass audience, presented in specific but at the same time changeable genres and formats. Thus, there are debates on the application of the terms ‘cyberjournalism’, ‘online journalism’, ‘multi-media journalism’, ‘computational journalism’, ‘algorithmic journalism’, ‘data-driven journalism’, and others to this type of media activity. The main research method applied in this study is dis-course analysis, which made it possible to understand the problems of a modern digital envi-ronment, to trace the genesis of digital journalism, to carry out typological analysis of the exist-ing digital media system, to determine the specifics of media products and audience participa-tion in digital creation and consumption of news. The novelty of the study lies in an attempt to introduce a systematic definition of ‘digital journalism’ into the scientific discourse, to pay at-tention to such features as uncertainty and variability, a transformation of the traditional cate-gorical apparatus, changing roles and functions of participants in the communicative process. The results of the study clarify the subject-object and structural characteristics of modern jour-nalism as well as determine the organizational and technological transformations of digital media production.