Epistolary Journalism in the Modern Media Space

Abstract

This article discusses the epistolary genre in modern journalism in media. It gives the definition of the presence and role of the epistolary genre in modern media space, as well as its genre and intrastructural characteristic. It also presents a ratio of changing volume of private letters to the journalistic epistolary in the historical development of the epistolary genre. Research was based on relevant examples of printed and electronic media of three countries – Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan in 2010-2015. The paper provides the typology and systematization of epistolary journalism examples in modern print media in Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus in 2010-2015. It considers the peculiarities of the epistolary journalism in conjunction with the nature of the publication – general interest, popular science or entertainment. It also identifies common trends in the development of epistolary journalism in the modern media, characterizes the trends of changing the nature of epistolary journalism according to the characteristics of modern media space and means of communication. The typology of the epistolary genre and its sub-genres distinguishes the following letter types:  by recipient, content, genre, form.