Genre features of esports journalism

this article analyzes the genre diversity of esports journalism in the Russian media space, using publications from escorenews.com between May 6 and May 12, 2024, as a case study. Russia was the first country in the world to officially recognize esports as a sport, and Russian players have achieved significant success in Dota 2 and Counter-Strike, stimulating the development of specialized media. The study considers esports journalism as a distinct branch of sports journalism and a new media phenomenon, where bloggers, live broadcasts, and social media play a central role. Using K.A. Alekseev’s classification, which includes both informational and analytical genres – information, video information, news item, statement, report, interview, reportage, commentary, discussion, press conference, review, conversation, and article – the content of 160 publications was analyzed. The most common genres were commentary, statement, and news item, while short informational materials and insider news were less frequent. Primary information sources included live streams, social media of experts, and other media outlets. The findings reveal characteristic features of the genre structure of esports media and highlight the specifics of their content production.

esports journalism, genres of journalism, content analysis, note