GRADUATION THESIS
PSEUDONEWS IN THE MODERN MEDIA
Evidence from NewsBelarus.net site
By DMITRY BUTER

Minsk, 2011

INTRODUCTION

People have been always interested in news. Getting information is ordinary necessity of any person. Recently this trend has become particularly notable. If we look at the statistics of query word "news" in the most popular Internet search service Google, it turns out that at the beginning of the century it took only 30-40 percent of the total share of requests. In the second decade this figure rose to the level of 80 percent.
However, the information contained in news releases, does not always reflect the hidden side of an event, and sometimes it is even boring and mediocre. As the horizon of an average reader becomes broader, the need for innovative coverage of what is happening around us is increasing.
News agencies are finding new ways of presenting information: video podcasts, infographics. However, meaning and significance are often lost behind a beautiful design. In pursuit of the reader, agencies often lose their individuality, merging their materials with overall news flow.
When a newsbreak is completely used up, and the reader is still interested in it, it becomes possible to fill the vacant space with excogitation, and sometimes to make everything up from scratch.
And thus pseudonews are born - materials that replicate the style of information resources, but they differ from the real news by satirical content.
The graduation thesis is devoted to pseudonews in the modern media space. In the framework of this thesis web sites and printed sources with pseudonews content, which are located in the U.S., Europe and Belarus are analyzed.
The applicability of the graduation thesis is determined on the one hand, by constantly presenting interest in news, and, on the other hand, by growing needs in humor and satire. There is innumerable number of pseudonews resources in the world, but this topic is not virtually touched upon in the scientific literature.
In addition, the society expresses the growing interest in alternative representation of reality. Search queries clearly indicate that internet users lack high-quality humor, by means of which you sometimes can move away from severe reality.
As mentioned above, the impact of pseudonews is not fully investigated, but media resources available on the market need to understand how and why they develop.
So, we form the methodological apparatus of the research:
Object of study is pseudonews resources, the subject of study - the peculiarities of functioning, influence and content of the Belarusian pseudonews resource newsbelarus.net.
Objective of study is to summarize the experience of creation and functioning of the largest domestic pseudonews resource. In addition, we shall consider a number of media of similar nature in the countries mentioned above. Besides, patterns in the development of the national resource in comparison with foreign analogues should be analyzed.
In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the following tasks must be performed: 1. To conduct an analysis of professional and specialized literature devoted to: * Theories of Journalism; * Analysis of news reports. 2. To identify key trends presenting in the target segment of journalism; 3. To perform a comparative analysis of media selected for the study; 4. To characterize key players on the considered market; 5. To describe the structure and operations of the site newsbelarus.net.

The thesis includes the following parts: 1. Introduction to the essence of the study, the indication of the subject and object of the research, setting goals and objectives. 2. Chapter 1. The origin and development of pseudonews in the media. 3. Chapter 2. The functioning of the most famous Belarusian pseudonews site newsbelarus.net. 4. The conclusion of the study carried out. 5. Annex with the most vivid examples of pseudonews site newsbelarus.net.

Chapter 1. THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF PSEUDONEWS IN THE MEDIA

1.1 PSEUDONEWS IN PRINT MEDIA

Pseudonews, also called false news, are one of the kinds of journalistic parody. They easily fit into the format of the modern press, and the prefix "pseudo" got fot their satirical content. We will not argue that pseudonews have always taken place. But from time to time they first could be met in print media, and later in audiovisual journalism: traditional April Fools jokes in the post-Soviet media may be an example. However, fake news have become especially popular in the Internet, where it is relatively easy to imitate any source of information and materials can achieve wide distribution and popularity from virtually any spot in the world.
The first attempt to use this kind of materials as a factor to attract an audience was used in 1835 by journalist Richard A. Locke, who worked then in New York's The Sun.
On August 25, Locke published his first series of six articles, called «The Great Moon Hoax». The materials were devoted to the discovery of life and civilization on the Moon’s surface. This discovery was attributed to the famous astronomer John Herschel.
The materials generated enormous excitement among the audience, and newspaper circulation has increased by several times. After analyzing the situation, we can identify a number of prerequisites for such a profound resonance which that article caused.
First, the factor of education. In the XIX century the number of people who had sufficient intellectual basis for an article exposure was negligible. The rest mass perceived "hydrogen-oxygen telescope without lenses" as the discovery of science.
Second, the factor of authority. Scientific language and references to non-existent mathematical derivations gave undisputed authority to materials. Moreover, the Herschel’s position in the nineteenth century can be compared with the position of Einstein in the twentieth.
Third, the development factor. The articles were signed by authorship of the British scientist who was at the Cape of Good Hope. Lack of telephone and telegraph did not allow the reader to verify or refute the information printed in the newspaper which gave Locke at least a couple of weeks, until refutation came by sea.
Fourth, the novelty factor. The topic was so new to the reader that it easily replaced all others. Frank O'Brien, the author of a book on the history of the newspaper Sun wrote about this as follows: “In New York, people stopped talking about slave trade, the high cost of living, and other similar vital topics, all the time was devoted to discussing lunar man-bats only. The Sun editorial was precipitated by impatient readers who wanted to buy already issued newspapers, and the editorial was flooded with requirement to send them by mail”.
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) was another famous author who used the pseudonews in his work. Long before his recognition as a novelist, Clemens worked as a newspaper journalist. Because of his satirical news he had to change his job twice: for the first time he run from Nevada, where he was challenged to a duel because of an article. The second time he left San Francisco, running away from the injured police officers, because its satire and fiction were often used for truthful reporting.
From this experience Clemens came to a thought, which is crucial for studying the phenomenon of pseudonews in the modern media space: "A lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes".
Seeing the success of pseudonews, newspapers added them to their arsenal. However, it must be understood that the excessive appearance of such materials in the press worsens the position of a media, undermining the reader’s trust. Therefore, the false news appeared only on the 1st of April (April Fool's Day).
As a rule, pseudonews differ by their absurdity and are identified in the same newspaper as a joke the next day. As an example, the Belarusian experience of pseudonews may be referred to. So, on the 1st of April two jokes appeared in the BYNET space. The first one was about the obligation to take an exam to be allowed to ride a bicycle. The second one stated that students will receive tablet computers instead of textbooks. Despite the fact that within a few days, the news creators admitted cheating, the First National TV Channel took materials about these innovations.
In 1934, the company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released a series of ten theatrical movies under the name «Goofy Movies», which included the insets of parody newsreel. The newsreel performed the function of television news, recording major incidents and events on video. Mock newsreel of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio first joined the actual information with satirical, but imperturbable narration.
In 1934 pseudonews also appeared on radio. In the program Kraft Music Hall, coming out on the station NBC, a presenter Dan Taylor told the fake newsreel which began with a report about New York baseball team New York Giants and their rivals, Philadelphia Phillies team. The essence of the message was to cancel the match due to the bad weather and its transfer to the moment where farmers would need the rain.

1.2 PSEUDONEWS IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA

Pseudonews were wide-spread on television in the 60s of the XX century, when Britain was experiencing a certain humor renaissance, named Satire Boom, led by such giants as Peter Cook, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, David Frost, Eleanor Bron and Dudley Moore. Their television program was called «That Was The Week That Was». The United States NBC network adapted this broadcast, having localized the content to the Americans’ interests.
The issues of the program played up the important political and social events within the country: monarchy, racism, prison, sexual and social hypocrisy. One of the most famous episodes of the show is a story about the "release of the consumer guide to religions", which compares and discusses the relative merits and drawbacks of different faiths.
In 1996, the channel Comedy Central produces the broadcast The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and a bit later - the program The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert, which have been very popular in the United States up to now.
Analysis of these programs, conducted in 2004 by Annenberg company, helped to identify some patterns. It was determined that The Daily Show audience had more information on a given issue, than usual news network viewers. It was estimated that the trust to Jon Stewart was not less than to hosts of conventional news programs.
However, research published in Journal of Communication, suggests that information programs in the entertainment genre, such as The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, may not affect voters when telling about political issues and candidates to the extent that was previously thought. Researchers from Ohio State University found reasons to devalue the effectiveness of these shows, while informing the general public. According to their research, people watching TV news, learned more about the position of a candidate and policy issues, while fake news programs, above all, showed the audience a personal background of a candidate.
Fox News Channel launched a pseudonews program in February 2007 with the title of «The Half Hour News Hour». Channel described it as "a daily show for conservatives", but the broadcast wasn’t a success and was canceled in a couple of months.
In the United Kingdom, it is worth noting high-class works of Chris Morris, a comedian and presenter. His series of programs on the radio, called On the Hour and the TV version of The Day Today copied official news programs so precisely that were virtually indistinguishable from them.
Currently, British pseudonews shows are created by the model of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. The program The Last Edition with Marcus Brigstocke on digital station BBC Four was virtually made by the canons of The Daily Show. Show News Knight with Sir Trevor McDonald parodied news differently, using the news announcer, who told information to the audience instead to news video. Another way of showing satirical news program was presented by Broken News, which shows several episodes of various news channels, mixing them with each other.

1.3 PSEUDONEWS IN THE INTERNET

Pseudonews appeared in the network together with its origin. The most successful site of such a topic is an American resource The Onion. It is the most progressive due to a sustainable and profitable business model, described in the Second Chapter of this thesis. The website, which was launched in 1996, became virtually of online satire, and its content united in a consortium with mainstream media sites such as CNN and CNET.
Today in the network there is a huge number of places for pseudonews publication. Some sites, such as News Groper, contain fake blogs written by humorists in the first person of a famous person. Other pseudonews sites try to mock original source of news, each time experimenting with the form.
Since interesting stories are often sent by e-mail and can quickly become detached from its starting point, pseudonews materials may be taken for real media reports.
Such a case occurred to the history of a man who sued a company producing perfume. The central issue of the dispute was the requirement to return the money because some Indian guy used this perfume for several years, but was unable to attract any girl. Site Fake News, which posted the material for the first time, publishes all sorts of fabricated stories, warning about it by the accompanying text. However, this did not prevent the material from being published in several leading media.
Another pseudonews publication called The Giant Napkin, narrated about a man who fought the fire, adding to a burning building more fire. The story absolutely absurd in its essence was quickly picked up as a real one and posted by multiple social networking sites.
Google News aggregator (a program or a web application for automatic collection of messages from multiple sources, such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts and video blogs) publishes pseudonews articles from many sources, which helps them to be perceived as serious. While Google does really mark such stories as "satirical", not all readers notice this mark. In addition, many pseudonews sites by exterior design are difficult to be distinguished from serious resources.
In 2003 the first pseudonews aggregator Humorfeed was created, which regularly collects materials from 60 sites of satirical nature. Humorfeed is the first resource, where pseudonews are paid for.

1.4 FOREIGN PSEUDONEWS MEDIA

There are a huge number of organizations that produce pseudonews in the world, from little blogs to huge agencies. To understand how they work, it is enough to turn to the giant of the industry, the world's largest pseudonews agency The Onion, which is the most appropriate example to analyze the creation of pseudonews.
The Onion is an American (and world's largest) organization producing pseudonews. It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news, in addition to a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club.
Since 2007, the organization has been publishing satirical news audios and videos online, as the "Onion News Network". Web traffic on theonion.com amounts to some 7.5 million unique visitors per month.
The Onion articles comment on current events, both real and fictional. In The Onion parodies traditional newspaper features are often played up: editorials, interviews with the "man in the street" and the stock prices of their standard design in the style of The Associated Press.
Most part of The Onion humor is a satirical reflection of everyday events that received media coverage.
Any pseudo article on Onion, as well as on any other similar resource, is created "inside out", i. e. authors begin from a headline and then set out a story in detail, in contrast to, for example, the New York Times, where its reporters write about the problem and then give an article to a headline editor to make it catchy.
The material always starts with a joke. According to the agency creator Chet Clem, on Monday morning a group of editors reads approximately six-eight hundred ideas headlines sent by staff writers and a small group of freelances. Then, these headlines are shortlisted to one hundred, and on Tuesday is a brainstorming session with the agency core - the fifteen editors. Each author receives a certain headline, and brings several versions of articles, of which one is chosen, and then a photograph or other visual aspect is added to it. Several days later, the material is posted on the site and appears in printed version.
The author rarely offers his idea of a headline. Basically, the author is a technical worker. In The Onion editorial staff, there are people who are keen on politics, there are those who are given all military topics. Some people write articles about only one person, for example, Britney Spears or Barack Obama.
The staff of photojournalists includes two teams of grafists. One team is photographers, the other is photoimposers. Almost every picture is original. Other pictures may be well-known if it is required to create a comic effect.
Many jokes that appear in headlines, are self-sufficient and do not require explanatory text. For such pseudonews there is a special column "headlines" on Onion, in which such titles are published in the form of news line. Some topics, such as "pedophilia", "gay rights", "War in Iraq», are not touched upon by The Onion.
And even despite of this, The Onion have evil-wishers. According to the head of the agency Sean Mills, it is quite normal: "Sometimes we receive the following texts, something like "I love it when you make a joke about murder or rape, but if you talk about cancer, well my brother has cancer and that’s not funny to me." Or someone else can say, “Cancer’s hilarious, but don’t talk about rape because my cousin got raped.” I’m using extreme examples, but whatever it is, if it affects somebody personally they tend to be more sensitive about it. But because we are equal opportunity, we can’t stop doing that.
Printed version of The Onion has the circulation of 720,000 newspapers every week. It is assumed that, at least, on average three people read each issue, so it's more than 2 million readers. Each news article, posted on the site, is read by about seven million people.

1.5 BELARUSIAN PSEUDONEWS MEDIA

Belarusian experience in writing pseudonews articles is inferior to the foreign one by dozens of times. Among domestic resources, not taking into account personal blogs, only three may be singled out.
Smeshnoj.com - site with funny news, which was founded in February 2009. Over 2 years of functioning, the site posted about 100 news of various topics, most of which concerned Grodno, the city where the site creators live. Topics that the site covers, does not reflect social problems, and the last update was on February 23, 2011. Average number of visitors - 100 people per day, which is negligibly small even for such a specific site.
Mirnyatom.net - site supported by the Belarusian “Green” Party. The resource is dedicated to the construction of a nuclear power plant, and pseudonews is not very frequent phenomenon. Therefore, the average resource attendance is approximately 130 people per day.
Newsbelarus.net - a resource created by the author of this thesis on July 30, 2010. With no advertising and additional resources, the site got huge popularity just in a month and became the most famous pseudonews resource in Belarus. The comparative chart of visits of above mentioned resources is presented in the picture below:

CHAPTER 2. FUNCTIONING OF THE RESOURCE NEWSBELARUS.NET

As news of the resource newsbelarus.net does not go beyond the internet, for their analysis the criteria for network journalism should applied.
Articles on this site are characterized by permanent relevance, i.e. the so-called deadline does not exist. The materials are published immediately after they were written. The advantages of this fact include the speed of updating and ensuring a high level of content personalization, the possibility of almost instant text edition. However, the rapid creation of content is accompanied by errors and inability to "publish all", which often causes frustration about volume of material. But it should be understood that the user is not able to process all existing content.
One of the advantages of online media is the ability to record and analyze information related to the site. You can determine the scale, geography, and preferences of the audience, you can also identify site gaps and promptly correct them, test different options to get optimal results. Newsbelarus.net has visitors counters, by studying of which the author can generate a number of topics that are interesting to the reader at this time.
Multimedia allows us to provide content in various forms: graphics, text, audio, video and animation. On the one hand, it is the attraction for large numbers of users and visibility, but on the other hand, distraction of the users’ attention and a large load on the content creators. On newsbelarus.net the impact is made primarily on the text, then on the photo, without overloading the site with other components.
Newsbelarus.net interactivity allows a user to manage content elements, such as navigation, hyperlinks, audio or video. It may be stated that the dialogue "user - server" is taking place.
The presence of feedback allows the user to interact with the author, and vice versa, online. Pros: attractiveness to the user, opportunity to comment on our favorite materials. Cons: you must check and edit user-generated content (forums, comments) - this is a big burden on authors.
Online journalism uses the same information and analytical genres, as newspaper journalism. However, the format of publications has a number of fundamental differences dictated by the specifics of online content perception and the need to optimize content for search engine robots.
To meet the user’s expectations, resource newsbelarus.net must meet the requirements of usability.
International Standard ISO 9241-11 defines usability as "the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use".
With regard to websites, it means convenience and ease of use, consistency in the arrangement of controls, the attractiveness of the site for users.
Newsbelarus.net has usability in due measure. On the home page the user can find the proper section and to search the site. To the right of the newsfeed a tag cloud with the most frequently used definitions is situated. There is a unit with ten most popular articles above it. The archive is located below the tag cloud.
For the first time the term "usability" in relation to network resources was introduced by Jacob Nielsen - the company's founder of Nielsen Norman Group, which he created together with Donald Norman, a former vice-president of AppleComputers.
According to Nielsen, "the task of usability is to investigate the behavior of the user and determine what works for his benefit, and what prevents and hinders him". Due to the feedback, we could find out what items on newsbelarus.net are redundant and what items are missing.
It is worth remembering about the behavioral model of the user. It includes the desire to find more information in less time. However, while searching the majority of users view a maximum of 20 first results generated by search engines, but in general most readers look only at the first page and are willing to spend a maximum of 10 seconds to decide whether to remain on the site (page), or close a browser window.
Jacob Nielsen believes that about 80% of users first scan the site contents and only then begin reading the text. In his conclusions he bases himself on the results of experiments carried out by the Poynter Institute (USA).
Resource newsbelarus.net operates on Wordpress platform. The platform is very useful in terms of simplicity and allows solving the maximum number of problems at minimal costs. Administration control panel is mastered on an intuitive level. The platform is absolutely free, which is certainly beneficial to amateur projects, which, as newsbelarus.net, do not have the initial capital. Wordpress allows to install any template theme, which again relieved the authors from additional costs associated with designer services.
The project newsbelarus.net has two main authors, they create the main content of the site. However, resource posts the articles written by other people. Anyone can send a text to the editorial mail. If the editors reckon that the written material fits the criteria of news newsbelarus.net, it will be published.
If we trace the development of the site, we may notice a very distinctive feature for any project, the so-called "Maturation". It is expressed primarily in the content of materials. At the beginning of the site existence only humorous materials were published there. But over time, humor transformed into satire and totally fabricated news began to get coverage opportunities associated with the situation in the country. The following articles were posted at the beginning: "To prevent people from swimming in fountains, it is decided to poison them", "Satan visited Belarus on a working visit," "A limit on swearing obscenities introduced in Belarus ", "Nothing happened to Alexander Solodukho last week!" But later the headlines became different: "The exchange rate of Mb has grown to 4,096 Kb", "The Belarusian stores allowed stealing", "Belarus to print dollars," "NBRB introduces freely convertible products.
Thus, the basic format of the site becomes visible. Newsbelarus.net deconstructs the political and social discourse of Belarus. The authors take real news and make their own pseudonews based on them, on the same language, using the same style, same icons and structure, but destroying the sense. This allows us to look critically at the real things.
One can track topics that the site covers by tags, associated to each article. Thus, the most popular tag is "Solodukha" – 33 articles are placed on the resource with this tag. The tag "Election" ranks 2nd position - 22 materials. Keywords 'Belarus', 'Ban' and 'Football' occupy 3rd place with 10 tags.
Photos for newsbelarus.net are taken from the Internet. The picture and the accompanying text do not always reflect the content of news, sometimes being a stand-alone joke.
The site newsbelarus has a logo. It reflects four fish, one of which is painted red and swims against the other three gray fish. Red fish symbolizes the authors’ desire to resist the gray mass of uniform information, which flooded the internet.
Average daily site attendance is presented on the diagram below. It may be seen that the first interest was expressed only due to the project novelty. Then the attendance dropped in September, and in a couple of days began to grow again, reaching a peak on Elections day. After that there was the lull, which may be attributed to the country as a whole, and in March (the beginning of a currency crisis), we saw the next upturn. This indicates a clear trend that in hard times people need humorous news.

The number of visits per day is about 1 500 people, which allows the site to be in top 50 000 blogs of Yandex engine, occupying 47 463th place among more than 42.5 million.
The following graph shows the time in which people are most likely reading the site. This is the period between 14-17 hours and 22-24 hours. Thus, it can be concluded that the materials on this site are interested in at the end of the day and at night before going to bed, giving the rest to the brain:
Views
May 2011
April 2011
Average for 3 months

With regard to the quality structure of the audience, , in most cases, it is men from 18 to 24 years. The second position occupies men from 25 to 34 years, the third - women from 18 to 24 years. A pretty clear conclusion may be made that men under 35 are more active in the Internet than women of similar age.

The transfer to newsbelarus.net is divided as follows: 65% - social networks, 25% - either manually or by tabs, 10% - search engines and RSS-aggregators (client software or web applications for automatic collection of information from sources exporting content). The site does not have own banner ads, but there is an informer, which works with a 1.3 coefficient in favor of the site (for every 1,000 clicks of users on advertising, 1,300 visitors come to the site).
According to the Brust Media study (13 000 Internet users), 16% of users visit sites by RSS-feeds, links on other sites, banners or advertisements. But it is necessary to understand that all this is very individual. With regards to newsbelarus.net, aggregators account for only 2% of the visitors.

Taking into account the efficiency evaluation of web project, the following may be stated:
Depth of site viewing: 56.48% of visitors browse 1 page, 16.66% - from 3 to 5 pages, 13.88% - 2 pages, 10.18% - from 6 to 10 pages.
Time spent online: 68.98% - less than 1 minute, 12.96% - 1 to 3 minutes.
The site is very popular - it has 2132 external links.
Practical conclusions:
- The structure of newsbelarus.net articles is based on the specifics of perception of newsbelarus.net online content: the text is easily scanned and read from the monitor.
- When working on the headline of the material on newsbelarus.net, it must be understood that majority of the users read it apart from the main content - not on the site.
- Any place on the site may be the entry point and exit point, i.e. the resource should not contain "weak points".
The emphasis should be placed on pseudonews reposts in social networks, by which the largest traffic flow may be accounted to. It is important to understand that the user creates the content, which is primarily interesting for his friends, so when writing articles the interests of potential readers should be priority.
The most important difference of a site post from a newspaper article is that it is created not only for the reader, but also for search engines and RSS-aggregator. The consequence of this is difference of sentences formation - many "effective" turns of speech should be ignored so that the text will be understandable to search robots.
The key elements of an online pseudonews publication on newsbelarus.net: headline, lead, body text, graphic design.
Basic information emphasis is placed on the headline, lead, first paragraph, and the upper third of the article. Details, background, comments, evaluations are located at the bottom of the text.
A headline always reveals a topic, it is attractive and, if it is possible, short. A headline on newsbelarus.net is always a joke, the disclosure of which may be found in the article text (e.g. “Faculty of combine driving to be opened in the Academy of Public Administration”).
A body text is usually brief, maximum - 1500-2000 symbols. It is important to make text markup, since sparse text is indexed faster, sub-headings in bold and containing keywords affect page rankings by some search engines.
To write articles on newsbelarus.net the following recommendations are used:
To avoid foreign words. The author should proceed not from the way the he understands reality, but how it will be better received by readers. If a foreign language word cannot be replaced, it is necessary to explain its meaning.
To try to minimize the use of abbreviations. We cannot assert that every reader knows, for example, UNESCO. However, sometimes the abbreviations are used for humorous effect: "FIFA president Joseph S. Blatter told our editorial personally (Federation of International Formula 1, right? - Ed. Comm.)" (Article: A Formula 1 track to be built in Molodechno). and: To replace per cent figures by words. For example, we use “half” instead of "50%", to double instead of "200%" e.g.: "Birds already pecked half of the spilled out uranium" (A van with uranium for the nuclear power plant turned over near Minsk). The same principles could be applied when we write about measure units (distance, weight, area, height, size). For example, it is better to write "the world's second largest football ground" than to write its area in square meters.
To use active forms of verbs for news articles. Passive forms are read as official statements: it is boring and hard to perceive.
To cite someone almost in every pseudomaterial, as the audience has more time to understand what a "specific" man said. Direct speech is better than indirect one.
About dates: it is better to write "at the beginning of the month" rather than "the day before yesterday", news should be relevant.

Summing up the various criteria proposed by theorists and practitioners of journalism, we can consider the contents of the newsbelarus.net according to the following classification:
Topic intelligibility to the reader. Materials about Belarus are much more interesting than the reports from North Korea: "In the morning at the Minsk Sea oil leakage pumped by derrick occurred. The platform belongs to LLC "Darida." As NB managed to find out, as a result of water stroke a drilling platform became disabled, it pumped beverages "Snowball" and "Cream soda" out of the soil under the Minsk Sea (“The Minsk Sea suffers an environmental disaster”).
The popularity of someone or something. On newsbelarus.net among the people that fall under this criterion one can find stars of the Belarusian show business, for example, Alexander Solodukha, about whom there are 34 articles on this site (Alexander Solodukha almost canceled a concert at the football ground because of the football match, Alexander Solodukha played guitar without strings, Solodukha returns to ZZ Top).
Timeliness. It is the main criterion for writing pseudonews for the site. As news becomes popular and begins to be covered by news resources, newsbelarus.net adjusts its content for it. For example, during one of the peaks of popularity of the site (pre-election week) 11 articles came out about the elections: "By the weekend Minsk to become the skating capital of the world, October Square was moved outside the Minsk Ring Road, the best party over five-year period to be held on October Square, winter crops to be sown on October Square".
First articles did not have the desired effect, but the situation changed dramatically after the release of the material "Condoms in Belarus to be sold for coupons." Pseudonews attracted enormous attention, it was suddenly spread through forums and third-party sites, and the news became the first article, which was taken seriously: "In the framework of the program for birth rates increasing in Belarus, it was decided to restrict the sale of contraceptives, particularly the most common of them - condoms". Now every young person who has reached 21 years and has not been admitted to an institution of higher education must pass a medical examination after which he will receive coupons to purchase condoms. Coupons are designed for one year and then a person must re-apply to the local hospital. In total, boys receive 12 packs of three condoms. It is worth noting that it will be impossible to buy condoms for money for the Belarusian citizens over 21 years and younger than 32 years. This Law shall come into force in January 2011".
The conflict. In general, the conflict in pseudonews takes place between real, fictional authorities and the reader himself. Many fictional solutions generate unprecedented interest in an article: "Belarusian road police banned blue cars." Some articles are completely absurd: "The soil test ended with an unexpected twist in Vileika district. The city sanitation service has identified a number of serious land problems, among which there is soil contamination with corpse phosphorus. After long debates it was decided to stop burying people in the land for a while. During soil cleaning, which was initiated by the Ministry of Health, it is possible to have the final journey of the deceased in another district or to cremate people. Remember it is not the first time when the Ministry of Health asks people to refrain from death. "(Sanitation center banned to bury people in the ground).
Uncommonness. Unpredictable developments please the reader very much and make him look through a few more articles in the search for a similar effect: “A new system to combat ice on the road designed in Minsk. A special excavator simply turns icy asphalt over the other side of the road”.
Originality. It consists in the form of material presentation, its content, new understanding of familiar text: "Vladimir Ukhtinskiy: "What is the name Solodukha? This is S and Olodukha. That is S with pancakes (Russian word game). Alexander's songs are as tasty as pancakes. Happiness and health to him." Anna Sharkunova: "What is the name Solodukha? It's So Lodukha. That is, with harmony. Alexander's songs are harmonious and good. Happiness and health to him." Alex Khlestov: "What is the name Solodukha? It's Saul Oduha. That is the name of some future American hero. Alexander's songs are cool and progressive. Happiness and health to him." Inna Afanasieva: "What is the name Solodukha? It's Solo Dukha. That is, the solo part from inside him (Russian word game). Alexander's songs are so emotional. Happiness and health to him." Anatoly Yarmolenko: "What is the name Solodukha? It's Solod Ukha. That is sweet to the ear (Russian word game). Alexander's songs caress the ears of all our citizens. Happiness and health to him." Nikolay Skorikov: "What is the name Solodukha? It's Solodu kha. That is a laugh in the face of alcohol (Russian word game). Alexander's songs are pleasant even without alcoholic drinks. Happiness and health to him." Dmitry Koldun, "What is the name Solodukha? It's Solodukh Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah! That is, the reaction to his work is only positive. Alexander’s songs will leave no one indifferent. Happiness and health to him" (Star congratulated Alexander Solodukha).

CONCLUSION

Exploring a position of pseudonews in the modern media space we managed to study the history of their origin. Thanks to the opportunity we could clarify the nature and potential of the satirical news.
After analysis of specialized literature it became possible to compare the materials on newsbelarus.net site with classification of news items, and to describe the resource in terms of online media.
Investigating patterns in the development of the newsbelarus.net site and its foreign counterparts, the following conclusions were reached: 1. Content of pseudonews resources are usually determined by specific local factors, and globalization trends do not affect much. 2. Ways of content presenting have similar trends on all pseudonews resources. 3. Currently pseudonews publications have become an integral part of the society needs, sometimes surpassing the news material of similar topics.
As for the future prospects, such kind of sites surely has them. Currently, with the attendance of 1,500 people per day, the resource can generate revenue of about $ 200. However with the advertising appearance a project will lose its status as an independent site and will be considered as an advertising project.
Thus there are a lot of problems about external funding to support staff who runs the site professionally.
Newsbelarus.net should be subject to changes as due to lack of money on advertising and time constraints for its content, the site does not evolve.
It is important to understand that the attendance of 1500-2000 users per day is very significant for a Belarusian resource. For example, visits to three of the top Belarusian music sites amount to the same figure. This means that in respect of consumer needs pseudonews bypassed musical information.
This situation imposes social responsibility to the reader on the site authors, which does not allow us to treat the site as a private blog, and it must be treated as a full-fledged news site.
As a result of the work we may make some conclusions about usefulness of the resource, its social significance and the need for its full development by analogy with western models, to which by the author of this thesis will devote his time further.

SOME ARTICLES FROM NEWSBELARUS.NET

http://newsbelarus.net/novosti-iz-belarusi/ohranu-supermarketov-vooruzhat-ognestrelnym-oruzhiem.html
Guards in supermarkets to be armed with guns

Weapons have already arrived in major supermarkets
From September 1, supermarket guards in Minsk will acquire the right to carry guns. The corresponding proposal was announced at the yesterday press-conference with participation of the Ministry of Trade. This measure will substantially reduce shoplifting, which has become a habit for many Belarusians. Under the new rules, guards will be authorized to use weapons if the price of stolen goods exceeds 10 thousand Belarusian rubles. In addition, they will have permission to shoot at the feet of suspicious buyers with a view to prevent a possible theft. As experts assured, the measures are effective and other nations will certainly follow this practice.
Test period for the new proposal will be held in some Minsk hypermarkets from the 1st of August.
Remember, under the old rules the allowed measure of stolen goods amounted to 50 thousand Belarusian rubles in cash.
Valera Osipchik

Published: July, 30 2010 17:49 http://newsbelarus.net/mirovye-novosti/delfiny-pomogajut-spasateljam-na-skvazhine-bp.html Dolphins help rescuers with BP oil spill cleanup

A flock of dolphins to the rescue
Unexpected help came in time to rescue workers coping with the consequences of oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico. According to eyewitnesses, this morning at the crash site a flock of eight dolphins showed up suddenly. The mammals, as if on command, began to drink the oil, and then jumped to the rescue platforms, on which cleanup works were carried out, and spit out the contents of their stomachs in the waste tanks. In a couple of hours about fifty dolphins already worked in the gulf. Management of BP called upon all the world dolphinariums to help and to send their dolphins to the place of works.
Remember, the average dolphin is able to drink more than half a ton of oil per shift.
Valera Osipchik

Published: July, 30 2010 17:52

http://newsbelarus.net/mirovye-novosti/severnaja-koreja-vypustila-internet-v-vide-knigi.html
North Korea released the Internet in the form of a book

Now every Korean has an Internet access
Internet became available in North Korea. Authorities succumbed to international pressure and released Internet in the form of a book as part of the democratization program. 2 million editions have appeared on the shelves of Korean stores. The book contains some personal pages of social networking sites, screenshots of the most popular videos on YouTube, blogs’ registration pages, as well as a few queries from Google. Also, for a certain fee, you can buy an annex of limited edition, which included pictures from some pornographic sites. Version 1.0 is attributed to the Book, which gives hope to updates releases.
Remember, the next step in the democratization program should be obligatory sterilization of shooting bullets.
Valera Osipchik
Published: July, 30 2010 18:08

http://newsbelarus.net/novosti-iz-belarusi/sostojalas-prezentacija-novyh-filtrov-dlja-interneta.html
Presentation of new filters for the Internet was held

Today, a presentation of new filters for the Internet, produced by "Integral", took place in the National Library of Belarus. After long deliberations and dozens of drawings, test samples were sent to the leading national providers. Our first correspondent Valera Osipchik managed to talk to not-the-last people in the plant about principles of a new device:
- The essence of the device is simple: an internet cable is attached to both sides of the filter. There is a net inside that does not transmit pornography and violence. The device is simple to operate: the provider has to disassemble filter once a month and clean this net. With the help of the black faucet the provider can block the access to the Internet.
- I heard that this product is only one of your two genius projects.
- Yes, that is true. But now we have only one project, because we got caught with «ACER» labels on our monitors and the second one was immediately closed.
In the future, according to experts, two traffic flowmeters will be inserted in the filter: separately for inbound and outbound traffic.
Mass production of the Belarusian engineering miracle is to be started next week. However, today on forums you can find useful recommendations on how to unwind traffic meter without breaking the seal.
Remember, there are no analogues in the world.
Valera Osipchik

http://newsbelarus.net/novosti-iz-belarusi/prezervativy-v-belarusi-budut-otpuskat-po-talonam.html
Condoms in Belarus to be sold for coupons

The new law will cause a lot of illegal products to enter the market
In the framework of the program for birth rates increasing in Belarus, it was decided to restrict the sale of contraceptives, particularly the most common of them - condoms
Now every young person who has reached 21 years and has not been admitted to an institution of higher education must pass a medical examination after which he will receive coupons to purchase condoms. Coupons are designed for one year and then a person must re-apply to the local hospital. In total, boys receive 12 packs of three condoms.
It is worth noting that it will be impossible to buy condoms for money for the Belarusian citizens over 21 years and younger than 32 years. This Law shall come into force in January 2011.
This decision has caused much controversy, but we were assured that this measure will not only contribute to population growth but will also improve the quality of life. In the light of new rules young people are given an incentive to work and feed their children. The State, in its turn, at the beginning of the law enforcement promises to provide tens of thousands of new jobs. According to state officials, every guy who wants to satisfy the needs of his family will be able to find a decent income. However, it is not clear yet how exactly new jobs will be created.
Rememer, that the author has already spent all July salary on condoms.
Ilya Maskito

Published: 12 August 2010 19:21

http://newsbelarus.net/novosti-iz-belarusi/minchan-objazhut-jekonomit-vodu.html
Minsk residents to be obliged to save water

Local smart guys found a way to get round the law. And the fence.
From November of this year Minsk City Council jointly with the City Utilities signed a bill to strengthen the economy of hot and cold water. According to the developed act, in Minsk the water to the toilet tanks will be supplied in the amount of 250 liters per person, registered in an apartment.
As the Ministry of Social Security told our correspondents (although we did not even asked them - Ed. Comm.), this measure will save a huge amount of money, which can be directed on something really important, for example, on the ice palace in Molodechno:
"We have developed a system according to which it is desirable to visit the toilet at certain time intervals: in the morning - from 7 to 9, dinner - from 12 to 14 and in the evening - from 18 to 20. During these particular periods water will be supplied to apartments."
From the beginning of the new year, the law will be a bit amended: each apartment is to be equipped with a drainwater meter, and each resident will be able to make 50 wash-offs, which is every third time.
Remember, if the apartment stinks – you are law-abiding.
Pavel Gnedysh, Valera Osipchik

Published: October, 20 2010 12:20

http://newsbelarus.net/novosti-iz-belarusi/belorusy-smogut-progolosovat-na-vyborah-po-sms-i-v-kontakte.html
Belarusians will be able to vote via SMS and vKontakte

This is how a new server for votes looks like.
The Belarusians are in expectations of new opportunities of voting. Since winter weather is very unpredictable, it is clear that not every voter wants to go out to give his\her vote for the benefit of the State. Therefore some additional convenient ways of voting are to be introduced urgently.
The election can be done, for example, via SMS-service by sending an SMS with the code of a candidate to the short number, which is common for all mobile operators. In this case the cost of message will not exceed 2000 rubles (including VAT).
Besides, the Belarusians registered in vKontakte, will be able to vote in a specially created group. Attention! Votes will only be accepted from users, who indicated Belarus as their home country in profiles. Currently the new voting service is being tested, which will end by the first of December. In contrast to the SMS-service, in vKontakte you can only vote once. For trying to "cheat" during elections, administrators will ban profiles for the sentence term from 3 to 5 years.
Remember that the sample of filled in ballot will also be available on the Internet, but not on NewsBelarus site, as we are still out of politics!
Kenis Duryan, Alina Sperivodich
Published: November 19 2010 17:45

http://newsbelarus.net/novosti-iz-belarusi/belarus-vozglavila-rejting-urovnja-zhizni.html
Belarus headed the rating of living standards

During the 4 th the National Assembly in Djibouti
The evaluation was carried out by the best sociologists in the country. As the researchers stated to our correspondent, the rating is unique by nature:
"We decided that the situation is approximately the same in all parts of the world, so we wrote the names of all countries on sheets of paper and put them in a hat. Then we pulled out Belarus and 4 other random countries. According to this average estimate, and it happened that now our country is the best with regard to standards of living in world! "
To ensure that there is no deception, we were shown the 4 random countries: Bhutan, Eritrea, Kiribati and East Timor.
Remember the First Channel is the world's best motivator.
NewsBelarus.net editorial
Published: December 13 2010 12:30

http://newsbelarus.net/novosti-iz-belarusi/na-oktjabrskoj-plowadi-sostoitsja-luchshaja-vecherinka-pjatiletki.html
The best party over the past 5 years to be held on October Square *
*For advertisement purposes

Will you come? People are trying for you...
On 19th of December club "Ploshcha" organizes a grandiose event, aiming at collecting maximum number of people. The initiators of the giant Open Air are MC's and DJ's well-known in Belarus.
The program offers you: the best animators from riot squad of the country, water-jet party, fun contests.
Every visitor gets the opportunity to take part in filming of a new reality show for the KGB (State Security Committee).
After the main program Afterparty is expected, which will take place at Akrestina str., where you can find the Chillout-zone and beds for tired after a roaring night people for free.
Recall, on presentation of a stolen ballot - admission is free.
Organizers
Published: December 19 2010 14:50

http://newsbelarus.net/hi-tech/nan-belarusi-razrabotala-energosberegayushhuyu-lampochku.html
National Academy of Sciences of Belarus has developed an energy-saving light bulb

All ingenious is simple
The Belarusian scientists presented a unique device to the public. The new bulb, which is designed to reduce energy costs, will enter the market in early March. For more details, we turned to Tom Hanks (yeah,...no, just to an ordinary NAS worker, Vladimir Sych. - Ed. Comm.).
- Our (but cunning eyes want to say that personally his. - Ed.) device is designed to reduce energy consumption by about 100%. Now you can throw away the so-called Western "fluorescent lights." Our light bulb is the real source of the day light: daytime - light, no daytime - dark. Why do they confuse the buyer? I can safely say that the new invention will not get unscrewed in hallways. But which is most important is service life. In fact, it is eternal.
The price of know-how will be from 10 to 2000 dollars (or maybe a little lower or higher.. - Ed.).However, as scientists have assured, you should hurry with the purchase, because the new technology will reduce costs of light bulbs production and, accordingly, will increase the price (which is f#ck?? - note of more or less knowledgeable editors.).
Remember, the manufacture of patented light bulbs at home will be prosecuted.
NewsBelarus.net editorial
Published: February 24 2011 16:31

http://newsbelarus.net/novosti-iz-belarusi/minsktrans-beremennye-dolzhny-oplachivat-proezd-za-dvoix.html
Minsktrans: pregnant women to pay fare for two people

With such high fares it is better to learn to fly!
In the press release issued yesterday by the press center of Minsktrans, besides fares raising, there are a number of interesting innovations. Minsktrans assured our correspondent that it was not an April Fools joke.
So, from the 2nd of April, pregnant women should pay fares for two people. According to the statements of Minsktrans lawyers, it is quite consistent with the legislation.
If a woman is expecting twins, she must pay fares for the three. In order to prevent ticketless travels, the Minsktrans supervisors will be equipped with portable ultrasound machines. If a woman paid for two people, and supervisors are doubtful about this issue, they have all rights to check her for the presence of a second child and in case there is a second one, she will be obliged to pay a fine.
Or make a ticketless passenger get off.
Remember, Minsktrans is a genre of music.
NewsBelarus.net editorial
Published: April 2 2011 15:30

http://newsbelarus.net/novosti-iz-belarusi/banki-perestali-menyat-prosrochennye-dollary.html
Banks stopped to change expired dollars

Check the expiration date of a dollar bill!
At the last press conference Belarusian banks stated that the expired dollars, which were previously free to be converted in Belarus, will not be exchanged any more.
Service life of a bill is 7 years, and the release date is indicated on the front of a banknote.
In connection with the expiry date of dollars, any operations with them are to be ceased.
The representative of the banking sector has already asked all the owners of invalid dollars either to throw them away, or to come to any exchange office to hand the money over for recycling.
Upon handing over more than 5 notes of any value, a resident of the country gets a "SUPERLOTO" ticket totally free.
Remember, the expiration date of a dollar is still unknown.
NewsBelarus.net editorial
Published: April 14 2011 13:20

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[ 1 ]. Matthew Goodman.The Sun and the moon: the remarkable true account of hoaxers, showmen, dueling journalists, and lunar man-bats in nineteenth-century New York. — N.Y.: Basic Books, 2005. — 350 p.
[ 2 ]. http://www.twainquotes.com/Lies.html
[ 3 ]. http://newswise.com/articles/view/544129/
[ 4 ]. http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2737707.htm
[ 5 ]. http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/The_Onion:_An_interview_with_%27America%27s_Finest_News_Source%27
[ 6 ]. http://poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/heatmap.htm