The modern Russian Market of business Information in the Conditions of Competition of daily Mass media and Telegram channels

Baranova Ekaterina Andreevna ORCID: 0000-0003-1794-9936 Doctor of Philology Professor, Department of Communication Management and Relationship Management, RSSU 4 Wilhelm Peak str., Moscow, 129226, Russia kat-journ@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Andrianova Dar'ya Dmitrievna Correspondent, "Kommersant" 123100, Russia, Moscow, Presnenskaya Nab., 10 d.adrianova@kommersant.ru

A large number of studies dedicated to the study of the impact of digital technology on the development of mediprotect ^{[17, 2019; 18, 2009; 19, 2019]}. One of the main problems is related to the fact that the active development of social networks has significantly affected the statistics of visits to the websites of online publications. The latter lose part of their audience. Ludi read the news on social networks and messengers. "Telegram occupies a special place in the hierarchy of digital platforms for the free and virtually uncontrolled exchange of any information on the Internet" ^{[5, p.103]}. Its popularity as a source of news information in the media space of Russia is growing especially rapidly, while the demand for other social networks (for example, VKontakte) is falling ^{[4, p. 4; Lytneva; 9, p. 52-53]}.

Telegram is a messenger created by Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov in 2013. In addition to the main function – messaging – the platform has the ability to create anonymous and open channels. Authors can post any content in them – informational messages, video and photo materials. The first channels were created by users to communicate in a group chat, over time many media outlets also opened channels ^{[16, p. 169]}, thus trying to attract a solvent mobile audience, which became increasingly difficult to find through the Vkontakte platform. In the Russian-language Internet, the trend was set by RBC and Echo of Moscow, by the beginning of 2016, the Telegram channel had become as familiar a platform for the media as Facebook or Twitter.

Telegram is used as an information channel to present official points of view, the Russian authorities also use this platform as a source of information about the population ^{[20, P.103]}.

The scientific discourse has developed different approaches to understanding the essence of the platform.  Some researchers see it as a distribution platform for reaching a larger audience ^[13], while others consider Telegram as an alternative media resource in relation to traditional media that broadcast a political position ^{[6, p. 160]}. Telegram channels are becoming popular due to the absence of strict censorship and the preservation of the anonymity of the authors ^{[7, p. 262; 12, p. 34]}. Researchers also note that messengers are becoming a kind of new social networks ^{[10, p. 34]}.

Telegram as a platform for the dissemination of information gives editors of traditional media and microblogging authors even more advantages than social networks. For example, if you publish a news item in Odnoklassniki, it will get into the feed of a potential audience, where it can be seen, or it can be missed against the background of other informational messages. But if you publish the material in Telegram, it will get directly to the reader, who sees it on a mobile device in the form of a message ^{[11, p.131]}.

A noticeable influence on the news agenda in the Russian media was exerted by Telegram channels, which publish various kinds of rumors, the veracity of which is quite difficult to verify. For example, in such channels as "Methodical" or "Nezygar", the number of subscribers in 2017 was more than twice the average number of subscribers of official channels of traditional media ^{[8, p.199]}. The messenger began to exert even more influence on society than traditional mass media ^{[3, p. 31]}. Telegram channels can form a certain information background around events. They also have low literacy, which is a characteristic feature of modern social networks ^{[15, 2019, p. 549]}.

Competition in the information market between journalists of classic business publications and authors of Telegram channels

The general decline in interest in the media "leads to the need for clear addressing, segmentation of content. In these conditions, mobile messengers are becoming an alternative to traditional media, providing an opportunity to create thematic channels that fully reflect the interests of the network audience" ^{[14, p. 323]}.

Telegram channels are becoming an alternative to traditional media in the business information market, competition in the information market between journalists of classic business publications and authors of Telegram channels is sharply increasing. Many microblogs in the messenger have much greater audience coverage and the number of subscribers than the channels of classic business media – RBC, Kommersant and Vedomosti. According to Tgstat estimates, the latter have a number of subscribers ranging from 34 to 76 thousand readers, and the coverage of one publication is from 7 to 19 thousand views [Telegram Audience Research, Tgstat, 2021. URL: https://tgstat.ru/research-2021 (accessed 29.10.2021)]. Independent business Telegram channels have a much larger audience. So, the Banksta financial microblog has an average of 50 thousand views, and the audience is 178 thousand people [Banksta channel, Telegram, 2021. URL: https://t.me/banksta (accessed: 06/26/2021)]. The Banksta channel, The Merciless PR Man, whose authors review marketing and PR cases, gained 101 thousand subscribers, and each post is read by an average of 30 thousand people [The Merciless PR Man Channel, Telegram, 2021. URL: https://t.me/prbezposhady (accessed on 09.12.2021)].

The popularity of Telegram channels of business topics is growing. This is especially acute in the business environment. Companies are increasingly starting their own microblogs, where they share exclusive news about their activities. For example, the housing developer Etalon has created the channel Etalon Group SPb: NEWS, restaurateur Arkady Novikov shares news about his establishments in the Novikov Group blog, and the Sber CIB Investment Research team leads the SberInvestment channel about the news of stock and currency markets. There are also anonymous channels in Telegram: the channel about the real estate market "Reinforced Concrete Kneading", "Arbiter", whose authors write about court proceedings and the economic channel "Banksta".

Legal and ethical responsibility of the authors of Telegram channels

Using the random sampling method, we reviewed materials published from October 30 to November 5, 2021 in seven Telegram channels with an audience of 5 to 86 thousand subscribers. The authors considered channels that write about the real estate market ("Real estate insiders", "Reinforced concrete batch", "Kompromat GROUP", "Domostroy", "Novostroyman. Moscow. Real estate", "Real Estate", "Moskvastroy").

As you know, journalists of traditional media, as a rule, adhere to the following basic ethical standards when writing their materials: refer to the original source of information and respect copyright. Plagiarism in journalism is unacceptable [The Code of Professional Ethics of a Russian Journalist. Union of Journalists of Russia, p.8, 1994. 8. URL: https://docs.cntd.ru/document/901854413 (accessed 05.11.2021)]. Media correspondents are obliged to clearly distinguish in their articles between the facts they are talking about and what constitutes opinions, versions or assumptions.  Mass media journalists should avoid situations that may damage specific individuals or the reputation of the company when publishing incomplete or inaccurate information, intentionally concealing socially significant information, spreading deliberately false information [Code of Professional Ethics of a Russian Journalist. Union of Journalists of Russia, p.3, 1994. 8. URL: https://docs.cntd.ru/document/901854413 (accessed 05.11.2021)].

After analyzing the materials published by the authors of Telegram channels, we came to the conclusion that these principles are not observed in most cases ^{[1, pp. 23-27]}. The main violation on the part of the microblogging editors in the messenger is the lack of links to the original source. They often base their publications on articles by professional journalists. For example, an article was published in Vedomosti on November 3, 2021, "UAC put up for sale 60 hectares of the MiG plant" [Molotkova D., Filatov A., Nikolsky A. UAC put up for sale 60 hectares of the MiG plant for 35 billion rubles, 2021. URL: https://www.vedomosti.ru/realty/articles/2021/11/03/894294-oak-prodazhu (accessed 05.11.2021)]. This material was reprinted by the microblogs "Kompromat GROUP" and "Real Estate insiders", but did not refer to the newspaper "Vedomosti". The article was also published by the Moskvastroy and Reinforced Concrete Kneading channels, but they respected copyright.

In addition to the lack of links to the original source of information, the authors of Telegram channels also do not refer to expert comments. For example, the article "Investors move out of town" was published in Kommersant on October 27, 2021 [Mertsalova A., Andrianova D., Woodpecker T. Investors move out of town", 2021. URL: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5051169 (the date of the appeal is 05.11.2021)]. The article said that investor Andrey Boksha purchased 60 hectares of land in the Moscow region, and experts interviewed by journalists believed that a cottage settlement project "with the cutting of plots of 6-15 acres with an area of households of 80-200 sq. m." could be implemented there. The material was reprinted by the channels "Reinforced Concrete Kneading", "Domostroy" and "Kompromat GROUP", and the microblog "Domostroy" duplicated the expert opinion without referring to the author of the comment.

Having analyzed the posts published by the channels "Real Estate insiders", "Reinforced concrete batch", "Kompromat GROUP", "Domostroy", "Novostroyman. Moscow. Real Estate", "Real Estate" and "Moskvastroy" for the period from October 30 to November 5, 2021, we found out that in more than 95% of cases, the authors of microblogs did not publish the position of this organization when mentioning the company. "Kompromat GROUP" in 42 materials from 42 posts did not reflect the position of the company about which the post was. "Real Estate Insiders" published 28 posts mentioning one or another developer, but there were no comments from their representatives in any of the material. "Reinforced concrete kneading" only in 2 out of 72 materials indicated the comments of developers. «Novostroyman. Moscow. Real Estate" published comments from companies that are mentioned in the channel's posts in 2 cases out of 18, "Domostroy" did not publish a single comment in 13 posts. Real Estate has published 18 posts mentioning a particular company, but only 2 materials have comments from their representatives. Moskvastroy published a comment by a representative of the press service of the company he wrote about in only one post out of 13 published. In the analysis, we did not take into account advertising posts and reposts from other channels.

Another serious problem is the fact that the authors of Telegram channels allow themselves to express their personal opinions and not be objective about the subject of discussion. So, for example, on the news of the "Airplane" group that the company intends to build resort real estate [The developer "Airplane" will build resort real estate." URL: https://realty.ria.ru/20211020/samolet-1755351651.html (accessed 05.11.2021)], on the channel "Novostroyman. Moscow. Real estate" there was a post with a value judgment: "Congratulations to the southern and mountainous regions, now the company will rape anthills and lack of roads, they will not only have the Moscow region" ["The plane" also goes to resort real estate. URL: https://telegram.me/s/novostroyman?before=5163 (accessed 05.11.2021)]. Thus, the author allowed himself an offending statement of the company's products, which would be unacceptable in the business press.

In addition, Telegram channels with a large audience contain information that can be considered unreliable. Unsubstantiated statements often appear in the "Kompromat GROUP" microblog. For example, based on the article "New Riga will be replenished with cottages" [Andrianova D. New Riga will be replenished with cottages, 2021. URL: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5052786 (accessed 05.11.2021)], published on the website of the newspaper Kommersant on October 29, 2021, a reprinted material on this topic appeared in Kompromat GROUP on November 1. Despite the fact that the original material stated that the investor Sergey Mefedov intends to build a cottage settlement in the Moscow region, the microblog collected absolutely all the facts that are not relevant to the topic of the article. It even mentioned a connection with billionaire Arkady Rotenberg and Russian President Vladimir Putin. In addition, it claimed that one of the secondary heroes of the article, the governor of the Tula region Alexey Dyumin, led a special operation to evacuate the former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. There is no such information in open sources, so it can be argued that this information is not reliable.

Real estate market participants and professional journalists of the largest business media interviewed by D. Andrianova confirm that ethical problems in the Telegram business information space are now being felt most acutely.

Telegram channels do not treat the verification of published information as carefully as journalists of large business media. To prove the subject or confirm the authenticity of a document or message that is a source of information for a journalist, he needs at least three independent sources, while Telegram channels often publish unverified information or simply reprint business media.

For the media, the main asset is the image, and strict adherence to ethical principles helps traditional media to preserve reputation capital. For Telegram channels, so far, momentary profit is more important than reputational losses, which means ethics in its classical sense is rather a hindrance to achieving the goal.

Nevertheless, it is possible to hold the authors of Telegram channels accountable. Microblogging administrators are often attracted for calling for mass unauthorized events, and in the business environment it is practiced to file lawsuits against authors for recognition of published information about a company or an individual discrediting their reputation. However, this practice is still applicable to channels whose authors are known. In the case of anonymous micro-media, it is almost impossible to achieve the deletion of information. You can, of course, try to file a lawsuit against Telegram itself with the requirement to disclose information about the owner of the channel, but this decision often depends on the will of its owner.

The correspondent of the business media collects a palette of opinions, often opposite, and the Telegram channel broadcasts only the opinion of its author," notes Larisa Vikhlyaeva, head of the Accent Capital press service [Interview of D. Andrianova with Larisa Vikhlyaeva, Head of the Accent Capital press service, November 4, 2021].

The absence of legislative and ethical restrictions often leads to the fact that any competitor, ill-wisher or unprofessional market participant for their own selfish purposes can publish information about the company that does not correspond to reality. The popular Telegram channel "Kompromat GROUP" (86 thousand subscribers) regularly publishes posts of a business nature, but it is almost never truthful.

Telegram channels as a source of information and a competitor for a journalist

Telegram channels help business structures attract a new audience, because in addition to market participants, these channels are monitored by journalists, press services, industry workers and simply subscribers who are not indifferent to the subject of discussion. Thus, Telegram channels win in the fight for their readers. In addition, if an employee of a classical mass media is limited, at least, by the time frame of the release of material, then authors writing for Telegram channels do not have such a framework - they can post material at any time, and often outstrip traditional media. For example, the news that the Arab investment fund Mubadala Investment Company can buy from AB Development a share in the third and fourth stages of the business centers "Arkus" was published in the Telegram channel "Filatoff Inc." at 17:05 on July 12, 2021 [Filatoff Channel, Telegram, 2021. URL: https://t.me/filatofff/1289 (accessed: 09.12.2021). In the newspaper Kommersant, this news came out only the next day [Andrianova D. The next station is Mubadala." URL: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4899017 (accessed: 09.12.2021)].

Some journalists use information from industry Telegram channels as an informational occasion for a future article ^{[1, p. 32]}. So, for example, do some journalists of Kommersant and Forbes magazine (Forbes). For example, on May 14, 2021, the newspaper Kommersant published news about the possible resignation of NOVATEK's top manager Evgeny Kot, referring to information from the anonymous channel "Gaz-Father [Woodpecker T. Yamal LNG launches a line of resignations", 2021. URL: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4804760 (accessed: 09.12.2021)]. Forbes, when writing an article that SMP-bank had gained control of a construction site in the center of Moscow, referred to the channel "Reinforced Concrete Batch", where this information appeared for the first time [Yakovenko D., Titova Yu. The Rotenberg Crystal: how the bank of Putin's friends got the former alcohol factory where the "Putinka" was bottled, 2020. URL: https://www.forbes.ru/milliardery/407887-kristall-rotenbergov-kak-bank-druzey-putina-poluchil-byvshiy-alkogolnyy-zavod-gde (accessed: 09.12.2021)].

PR services are already thoroughly working with the authors of the channels and treat the information published there as materials written by professional journalists: they send comments and press releases to the editorial office or personally to the author, invite to events ^{[1, C. 32]}.

The problem of competition in the business information market in the context of the development of Telegram channels is becoming more and more relevant today. They are beginning to play an increasingly important role in the implementation of communications between large companies and the audience, while business media lose their role.

Part of the audience of business media began to consume information in Telegram channels. After all, often a business article written by a journalist of the classical media gets fewer views on its website than a rewrite of this article made by the author of a particular business Telegram channel. For example, the article "House.RF" got a job at Lampo [Andrianova D., Aminov H. "The house.RF" got a job at Lampo, 2021. URL: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5041672 (accessed: 05.11.2021)], published on the website of the newspaper "Kommersant" in October 2021, gained 1.6 thousand views. This material was reprinted by Telegram channels "Reinforced Concrete batch" (the post was read by 8.8 thousand people) and "Domostroy" (6.8 thousand views). It should be noted that this was an exclusive article of Kommersant. Telegram channels did a rewrite and did not put links to the original source, which, as we noted above, is a fairly common practice.

Representatives of PR services of large companies in the real estate market have been actively working with the authors of microblogs since the end of 2019. They treat the information published there as materials written by professional journalists: they send speakers' comments and press releases to the Telegram channel editorial office or personally to the author of the microblog, invite him to events, even if the channel is conducted by an anonymous author. Thus, Telegram in some cases has become an even more authoritative source of business information for the press services of companies than traditional media ^{[2, p. 32]}.

The degree of trust companies have in the authors of Telegram channels may be different. For example, some major players in the real estate market perceive Telegram channels as a full-fledged media and send them comments on request (PIC, MIC), – said D. Andrianova, the author of the Telegram channel "Novostroyman. Moscow. Real estate", who wished to remain anonymous [D. Andrianova's interview with the author of the Telegram channel "Novostroyman. Moscow. Real Estate", October 20, 2021].

Other companies interact with the author of the microblog only if something negative has happened. For example, if an emergency occurred in the developer's residential complex (fire, flood, elevator fall), – says the author of the Telegram channel "Novostroyman. Moscow. Real estate" [Ibid.].

Finally, there are organizations that never give any comments and do not contact the author of the Telegram channel. Now there are much fewer such organizations.

However, the policy of companies that prefer not to interact with the authors of Telegram channels in any way can be understood. As a rule, market participants are consumers of information in profile microblogs, so news published in established channels can affect the reputation of the company, especially if the information is negative," Colliers Regional PR Director Marat Muradyan told D. Andrianova [Interview of D. Andrianova with Colliers regional PR Director Marat Muradyan, 20 October 2021]. The deputy director of the press service of Dom agrees with him.Russia" Natalia Mikhailyuk-Shugaeva [Interview of D. Andrianova with the deputy director of the press service "Dom.Russia" by Natalia Mikhailyuk-Shugaeva, October 20, 2021]. For example, negative posts in channels about new buildings produce the effect of an exploding bomb: they gain tens of thousands of views due to the fact that there are many chats of residential complexes in the messenger, the author of the anonymous channel Novostroyman notes in an interview with D. Adrianova. Moscow. Real estate" [D. Andrianova's interview with the author of the Telegram channel "Novostroyman. Moscow. Real Estate", October 20, 2021]. This often helps to solve the problem quickly, to understand how to choose an apartment in a new building.

However, the development of business Telegram channels entails a serious problem. Unlike journalists of professional publications, the authors of microblogs are not limited by the law "On Mass Media". For example, if a journalist is obliged to display the position of all parties to the incident, or at least try to request comments and attract experts who share different points of view, then the authors of Telegram channels should not do this. Only some channels work according to the rules of business media and add comments to the post.

Top managers personally, through the press service or communication agencies regularly contact the authors of the channels, so Telegram is a means of communication that now forms both the news agenda and brand loyalty," said D. Adrianova, the author of the Novostroyman. Moscow. Real estate" [Ibid.].

According to the author of the channel "Real Estate insiders", who wished to remain anonymous, there is no institute of PR reputation in Russia - any incorrect actions of the company will not affect sales or a drop in demand from consumers [Interview with D. Andrianova with the author of the Telegram channel "Real Estate Insiders", October 20, 2021]. According to the author of the microblog, in most cases companies are asked to delete posts with negative information only so that the top managers of the organization do not see the mistakes of the press services, - said D. Andrianova, the author of the Telegram channel "Real Estate Insiders" [Ibid.].

Conclusion

The Russian business information market has begun to transform in the context of the development of social networks and new media. The audience of this segment – businessmen, top managers, investors and other participants in the business industry began to consume information not only in classic business newspapers such as Vedomosti, Kommersant and RBC, but also in Telegram channels. Often, a business article written by a journalist of the classical media gets fewer views on its website than a rewrite of this article made by the author of a particular business Telegram channel.

Telegram has already become an integral part of the information field of companies. Many market participants perceive it as a full-fledged media. The reputation of the organization is influenced by publications in the messenger microblogs, so the press services of companies are forced to monitor the information published on the platform channels and actively interact with the authors of microblogs.

Despite the recognition of Telegram channels as sources of information in the business community, such media cannot yet be called full-fledged competitors to professional media. Telegram channels do not adhere to legal and ethical standards. This led to the fact that false information began to spread quickly in such media. The authors of microblogs allow themselves various violations, since they are not interested in creating a reputation. For microblogging authors, short-term profit is important, and reputational losses are not so significant for them. Anyone who wants to have the opportunity to create an anonymous channel in which the author can publish information, including unreliable. The owners of such microblogs can place accents in a certain way or keep silent about any facts at all.