The websites of the internet-media Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru in 1999-2019: Transformation of ideas about the appropriate, the beautiful, and the proper

The article analyzes the transformation of the websites of the two most popular Internet media in Russian, Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru, from their creation in the late 1990s to 2019. It is based on the materials of archival snapshots of the Russian Internet. Snapshots are the archived copies saved on the Way Back Machine Internet archive server, a non-profit organization that creates a digital library. This copy includes all open and whole files, which allows researchers to view not only the appearance, but also the functionality of the site, as well as its program code. In total, the Internet archive server contains 17,133 Lenta.ru’s snapshots (starting from November 27, 1999, to March 17, 2019) and 22,998 Gazeta.ru’s snapshots (starting from December 3, 1998, to April 5, 2019). For this work, we considered at least one snapshot of each week of each month in the year. Fixing changes in the graphic models of the studied media allowed noting the structural, functional, and content (at the level of headings) transformations of the sites, identifying general trends in change and features of each of the analyzed Internet media. The results of the analysis show when these online media were redesigned, when they gradually changed certain visual components. The paper traces the main changes in the headings, the rejection of “paper-centric” designations of the main headings (such as “Today in the Issue”), the transition from HTML to HTML-5, the connection of the corresponding CSS libraries, the integration of elements using the JavaScript programming language into the page markup. The article also outlines the main stages and years of changes in graphic models (first for the screens of devices with different aspect ratios, then with adaptation to the screens of different devices), changes in the site models themselves: basic blocks, centering, color solutions. Special attention is paid to the opportunities for feedback that are gradually introduced into the sites, including those based on social networks. Special attention is paid to the “multimedia” turn in the visual content of websites (and later mobile applications), the gradual increase in the number of photos and videos, the adaptation of the model and layout of the sites to these new content presentation formats, the appearance of online broadcasts. In general, the presented analysis allows us to trace how the largest Internet media in Russia formed their ideas about what is acceptable and functional. Content forms do not change as a result of the creative request of producers or the audience. Technological aspects are usually the most serious reason for change: all content changes are the result of the bandwidth of communication channels, programmers, and the gadgets used for media consumption. We can assume that, in the near future, changes in the visual appearance of sites will be connected with their personalization due to the more active development of applications and neural networks. Since other editorial offices focus on the best of federal media and look for what is good for them, the article shows how, in principle, the standards of web design of mass media have changed in Russia, how ideas about the appropriate, the proper, the usable, and the beautiful in the Internet media have transformed over time. Contribution of the authors: the authors contributed equally to this article. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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