Saving Media or Trading on Trust?

Abstract

Ext e n d in g re s e a rch fro m Wo jd yn s ki a n d Eva n s ( 2 0 1 6 ) , t h is e xp e rim e n t a l s t u d y re p lica t e s t h e ch a lle n g e s o f e ffe ct ive ly d is clo s in g n a t ive a d ve rt is in g t o re a d e rs a n d d e m o n s t ra t e s a p ro m is in g in o cu la t io n m e t h o d t h a t in cre a s e s like lih o o d o f re co g n it io n . Mo re o ve r, t h is q u a n t it a t ive re s e a rch in d ica t e s t h a t b o t h le g a cy a n d o n lin e n e ws p u b lis h e rs w e re e va lu a t e d le s s fa vo ra b ly fo r d is p la yin g n a t ive a d ve rt is in g . At t it u d e s t o wa rd t h e p u b lis h e r a n d p e rce p t io n s o f it s cre d ib ilit y d e clin e d fo r b o t h , a lt h o u g h o n lin e p u b lis h e rs s u ffe re d g re a t e r a t t it u d in a l d a m a g e t h a n d id le g a cy p u b lis h e rs wh o m a y b e n e fit fro m t h e ir e s t a b lis h e d re p u t a t io n . Extending research from Wojdynski and Evans, this experimental study replicates the challenges of effectively disclosing native advertising to readers and demonstrates a promising inoculation method that increases likelihood of recognition. Moreover, this quantitative research indicates that both legacy and online news publishers were evaluated less favorably for displaying native advertising. Attitudes toward the publisher and perceptions of its credibility declined for both, although online publishers suffered greater attitudinal damage than did legacy publishers who may benefit from their established reputation. URLKEYWORDS framing; journalism; media effects; native advertising; persuasion; source credibility Intr oductionAs advertising and subscriber revenues continue to plummet (Cillizza 2015; McChesney and Pickard 2011), legacy publishers are looking for ways to fund the costs of producing the content in their publications. With the technological revolution of digital media, a controversial practice is drawing increasing attention: the notion of "native advertising." Native advertising refers to the practice of creating ads that mimic, or appear "native" to, the platform on which they appear. These messages adopt the same format, font and tone as a traditional piece of journalism or user9generated post, often looking nearly identical to the content created by the platform publisher (Austin and Newman 2015;Conill 2016;Einstein 2016;Sonderman and Tran, 2013). The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) defines native advertising as "paid ads that are so cohesive with the page content, assimilated into the design, and consistent with the platform behavior that the viewer simply feels that they belong" (IAB 2013, 3). It is varyingly referred to with different types of disclosures such as sponsored content, branded content, or promoted content. This inconsistent labeling of native advertising complicates an audience member's ability to identify the type of content he or she is consuming (Austin and Newman 2015;Conill 2016;Einstein 2016;Sonderman and Tran, 2013; Wojdynski and Evans 2015)...

What Am I Reading?: Article-style Native Advertisements in Canadian Newspapers

“…Truth biasexperiencing situations as truthful by default -is a common cognitive heuristic [18]. The inactivation of persuasion knowledge has been hypothesized to be the working model of covert advertisements [19,20]. When readers do not realize that they have encountered an advertisement, they do not "defend" against the persuasion using their coping behaviors, and so are more easily convinced [20].…”

Duplicity in Alternative Marketing Communications

“…Native advertising is classified as unpaid (no payment to the advertising platform such as Facebook, but the creator of the content is a paid contractor or an employee) but welcomed marketing communications (Campbell et al 2014). However, other researchers (Amazeen and Muddiman 2018;Conill 2016;Schauster et al 2016;Taylor 2017) have argued that native advertising is usually not labeled as a marketing communication and thus has a deceptive side for consumers who are not aware of the source of the message.…”

At the intersection of interests: evolving creative processes and new agency-media dynamics

“…The above-mentioned developments have created a clear path for the evolution of the advertising forms that emerge at the blurred boundaries between content and advertising (Amazeen and Muddiman 2018). Brands became frequent guests in press and online editorials and television programming spaces in a form of branded content and entertainment (Fulgoni, Pettit, and Lipsman 2017).…”