Russian media during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The article examines changes in the Russian media system during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: the dynamics of the coronavirus agenda, traffic, monetization features. The analysis of media content allowed us to determine the leading topics in the disclosure of the coronavirus agenda within three periods corresponding to the key moments in the development of the situation with COVID-19 in the world and in Russia during the first wave of the virus: the first mentions of the new virus, news from China, Italy and other countries where the sick appeared; a sharp increase in the number of news items directly related to coronavirus infection; along with medical topics, the problems of getting out of self-isolation. The article also describes the changes that have occurred in the editorial policy of the media: technologies for preparing journalistic texts, linguistic marketing.