The impact of rewriting on the specifics of regional news

The news feed of modem regional publications is replenished daily with dozens of texts. In order to work with such intensity, it is impossible to get by with only original materials. The aim of this study is to characterize the impact of rewriting on the specifics of regional news. The article presents the results of a content analysis of three popular news sites in Novosibirsk Oblast. Only 6% to 26% of publications in them are original, the rest are rewritten texts. Press releases of government agencies, law enforcement agencies, commissariats, etc. became donors for 30-50% of news, slightly less often materials from other media or news agencies were used (from 33% to 40%). The main methods of rewriting are shortening, converting direct speech into indirect statements, replacing words (most often replacing expressions of the official business style, which abound in press releases, with neutral vocabulary; or including colloquial constructions designed to give the text an informal character). The hypothesis that the regional nature of the analyzed content should determine the high frequency of personalized news (the presence of a hero, a description of life circumstances that are interesting to readers) was not confirmed, probably because such an approach to creating a text requires additional efforts and a lot of time from the author: to find the hero and communicate with him, use additional sources, specially build the composition, etc. In the press releases taken as the basis for most of the news, the main task was to demonstrate the role of the organization or its leader, and not a specific participant in the event. The second part of the work discusses the presentation of events by regional media and is based on the structural and discourse analysis of 20 news items published in 19 online publications. These materials shared a single event as their basis, and the majority turned out to be re-written versions of a press release from the mayor's office. The dominant changes made to the original material included shortening, altering the headline and lead paragraph, rearranging the order of paragraphs, and simplifying certain grammatical constructions. The research demonstrated that regional media implement an extensive model of working with news content, the primary tool of which is rewriting. The main editing methods employed are those that can be used with minimal time investment. The analysis of news from Novosibirsk media portals showed that editors use a limited range of source text types, most frequently press releases from government bodies and materials from other media outlets. Regional editorial offices show weak engagement with the social media of public figures, NGOs, and social institutions. This situation affects not only the content of publications and the breadth and completeness of the daily news picture but also the independence of the editorial policy pursued by the media outlet. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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