Abstract

This study investigates the visual objects that are used to either disclose or disguise the commercial nature of native advertising as news articles. We adopt a “material object” approach to explore the potential implications for journalism regarding transparency, trust, and credibility. Methodologically, this study used content analysis covering 21 publications in five countries: Germany, Israel, Norway, Spain, and Sweden. We analysed 373 individual native ads. The findings show that news outlets do not follow a consistent way to disclose native ads visually, negotiating the balance between transparency and deception. In this balance, news organizations do not boldly push for transparency and instead remain ambiguous. Our analyses show that both national and organizational characteristics matter when shaping the visual boundaries of journalism.

摘要

本研究调查了用于披露或伪装作为新闻文章的原生广告的商业性质的视觉对象。我们采用“实物”方法来探索在透明度、信任和可信度方面对新闻业的潜在影响。在方法论上，这项研究使用了涵盖五个国家/地区 21 种出版物的内容分析：德国、以色列、挪威、西班牙和瑞典。我们分析了 373 个单独的原生广告。调查结果表明，新闻媒体并没有遵循一致的方式来直观地披露原生广告，在透明度和欺骗性之间寻求平衡。在这种平衡下，新闻机构不会大胆地推动透明度，而是保持模棱两可。我们的分析表明，在塑造新闻业的视觉边界时，国家和组织特征都很重要。