The genre paradigm of regional press: Transbaikal region’s print media

This study explores genre as a key concept in journalism theory in the discourse of Transbaikal Region’s print media. The paper presents the results of the content analysis and substantive analysis of media texts to determine the genre forms prevailing in the information space of the region and to identify the trends and specifics of genre formation in newspapers at the present time. The study analyzed 4,771 examples of journalism published in the period from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2023 in the socio-political newspapers “Zabaykalsky Rabochiy” and “Chita Obozrenie”. The results showed that the regional press is dominated mainly by classical genres, which are least susceptible to transformation, mixing, or interpenetration. Examples of analytical and literary-publicistic genres are significantly fewer than information genres in the media space of the region. The article is the most widespread genre in local publications, while the pamphlet is the least popular. The article outlines ways to optimize the genre structure of newspapers requested by the audience to meet the diverse informational needs of the residents of the Transbaikal Region.