The effects of disclosure format on native advertising recognition and audience perceptions of legacy and online news publishers

Abstract

This experiment with a representative sample of US adults ( N = 800) examines the effects of disclosure design characteristics in sponsored news on readers’ ability to recognize such content as paid advertising, and examines whether such recognition differently affects perceptions of legacy and digital-first publishers. Although fewer than 1 in 10 participants were able to recognize native advertising, our study shows that effectively designed disclosure labels facilitate recognition. However, participants who did recognize native advertising had lessened opinions of the publisher and the institution of advertising, overall.

News in an Era of Content Confusion: Effects of News Use Motivations and Context on Native Advertising and Digital News Perceptions

“…Reactions to advertising can also have more widespread, spillover effects. In the case of native advertising within a journalistic context, recognition has led to less favorable evaluations of the industry of advertising, overall (Amazeen & Wojdynski, 2018). As suggested by the defensive consumer model, when an individual feels like they have been misled, a more general distrust of advertising may be fostered (Darke, Ashworth, & Ritchie, 2008).…”

“…Like any research effort, certain limitations of this study need acknowledgement. As previously noted, since the incidence of recognizing native advertising among the general U.S. population is very low (Amazeen & Wojdynski, 2018), MTurk workers were selected as the population from which to recruit the sample of participants. Although a fieldwork error omitted the measurement of the educational status of study participants,1 MTurk workers are known to be younger and better educated than the general public (Sheehan, 2018).…”

Reducing Native Advertising Deception: Revisiting the Antecedents and Consequences of Persuasion Knowledge in Digital News Contexts

“…This content is produced not just by advertisers, but also by news organizations, themselves, on behalf of advertisers (Gerth, 2017;Moses, 2017). Although native advertising is required by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to carry clear and prominent disclosures informing audiences that the content is an advertisement (FTC, 2015), a growing corpus of academic research indicates that the vast majority of news consumers are deceived (Amazeen & Muddiman, 2018;Amazeen & Wojdynski, 2018;Wojdynski & Evans, 2016). With no standardization as to what these disclosures should say or look like (Einstein, 2016;Ferrer Conill, 2016), perceived transparency varies widely with many consumers failing to notice them (Wojdynski & Evans, 2016) or not understanding what they mean (Gilley, 2013).…”

Ad revolution or evolution? Typical ad representation and general ad attitudes influence the effectiveness of branded content

“…Previous studies found that regarding native advertising, there was no significant difference in advertising recognition between less explicit ("sponsored content") and explicit ("paid commercial" or "advertising") disclosure. They were equally effective in activating persuasion knowledge that led to higher ad recognition compared to no disclosure or disclosure with very low clarity ("partner content") (Amazeen and Wojdynski, 2018;Iversen and Knudsen, 2017;Wojdynski, 2016;Wojdynski and Evans, 2015).…”

“…This is a paid commercial message of XY product.") used the term "paid commercial message" that had also been tested in other studies (Amazeen & Wojdynski 2018;Wei, Fischer & Main 2008). The explicit ad disclosure ("Although this video does not look like a typical ad, it is in fact a paid commercial message of XY product.")…”