New Year as the Topic of the Information Agenda (Using the Example of News Sites: News.am and Tert.am)

Key words: Media, news, holiday, show business, sports, politics The article discusses the information agenda of Armenian news sites News.am and Tert.am for December 31 and January 1, 2022-2024. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the materials shows that although the New Year's holiday as a socio-cultural phenomenon does not have a political context, at the same time, on those days, news site feeds are politicized. This pattern is especially evident in the messages of political, public and spiritual figures, in New Year greetings from famous figures from the world of show business and sports. Materials on the results of the past year, as well as the forecasts of events and phenomena expected in the New Year, are also politicized. The New Year is also becoming one of the factors in covering the socio-political events from one angle or another. This phenomenon is caused by domestic and foreign policy events in the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic). This fact allows us to conclude that the New Year, as the basis of the content of the information agenda for the holiday, more often serves as a means of promoting a particular political and public agenda than festive and entertaining content.