Storytelling Techniques in Business Journalism (on the Example of "Own Business" Section Materials of RBC, Creative Work)

Nowadays there are a lot of discussions, the purpose of which to determine the development and current state of business journalism in Russia, the place of storytelling in journalism and also the features of using storytelling techniques in this sphere. The current research focuses on storytelling techniques in business journalism. Articles written by me and published in “Own business” section of RBC are considered as an example of using such techniques in this sphere. The empirical base of the research is the materials published from April 2017 till the present day. This period was chosen because of the relevance of articles, and also due to the noticeable increase of the Russian-speaking audience’s interest in the storytelling. The main purpose of the research is to identify and classify storytelling techniques used in “Own business” section materials of RBC. There are used empirical methods (analysis of the content of website Rbc.ru and analysis of statistic information (corporate documents that are in closed access)) and theoretical methods (historical analysis, comparative analysis, periodization and classification methods) to achieve the purpose and objectives of my research. In the first part of the research I considered the concept and characteristics of business journalism and storytelling. In the second – creative – part of the work I identified the specificity of using storytelling in “Own business” section materials of RBC and also the specificity of the audience’s reaction to these materials. As a result, I proved the hypothesis that the number and quality of storytelling techniques used “Own business” section materials of RBC affect the success of the perception of these materials by the audience, expressed in the number of views, readings to the end, time spent on the page, and virality.