Media agendas built by non-institutional actors of the journalistic field: specific features

The article examines the problem of agenda building, classic for theory of journalism, which acquires a new dimension in the digital media space. By using journalistic practices, non-institutional actors gain symbolic power in the field of the production of meanings. The author hypothesizes that such actors form their own media agenda, which serves as a counterbalance to the traditional-mainstream agenda, characteristic of the federal Russian TVdiscourse. The paper reveals the features of the thematic level of the agendas through the example of the news-review media format of the YouTube channel ‘varlamov’. The study is based on theoretical approaches that assume a subject-instrumental division of participants acting in the field of journalism, and employs a rational-system classification of subjectivity. In the course of research, the peculiarities of media agendas in terms of the level of their formation, thematic dominants, and the nature of the issues discussed were determined. These include the poly-thematic nature, the emphasis on the national level, the priority of internal issues over external ones, and the predominance of political and social aspects of media reality being presented. Specific topics were found to be emphasized in the analyzed media agendas: human rights and civil protests. The features of rational subjectivity were revealed. Following the interests of the audience manifests itself in the nature of economic and social news, which are related to everyday human needs. The conclusion is made that the media agenda in the cases examined is influenced by the factor of opposition to official discourse and that it is civic-oriented in nature.