Changing patterns of digital news consumption among Russian journalism students

Abstract

The authors examine features attributed to consumption of news on the Internet by young and active residents of Moscow – students of the Faculty of Journalism at the Lomonosov Moscow State University. The empirical data was based on ‘news diaries’ filled in by students in the course of a week between February 15, 2016 and February 21, 2016, 40 people in total. Authors analyze users’ behavior on the web, specifically their interest in various news resources and links to news publications posted on social websites. The article figures out the contemporary academic approaches to news production, distribution and consumption in the digital environment. The study explores media consumption of young Russians who belong to the ‘digital natives’ generation. The collected through the empirical research data is proved by the current theoretical approaches to online news consumption process. This article describes the present-day role of the Internet and digital media in the Russian media system to provide context for this analysis.