Media Need Advertisements!

Alex Moning
am203705@ohio.edu

News media need advertisements.

It should not come as a surprise to anyone that newspapers, in particular, are losing public interest and therefore seeing a decrease in the amount of money coming in. The money advertisers provide is something we cannot afford to lose right now.

But it is not right that newspapers and magazines often have to alter the content of their writing and design in order to appease those advertisers. The examples of the demands by certain advertisers given in the article “The Squeeze” in Columbia Journalism Review are enough to frustrate any journalist.

And it is frustrating because there is not much we can do about it if we want to keep our advertisers satisfied enough to want to continue working with us.

Each advertisement brings with it a conflict of interest. If a local business were to be accused and involved in some kind of legal trouble, would a newspaper be able to write an honest and factual article about it if that company had been regularly purchasing advertisement space? Could the paper afford to lose that business today?

It is an issue that needs to be thought over in the media industry, for sure. Advertising is a necessary staple in media incomes, and we all need to be sure that it does not interfere with our desire to remain as ethical as possible.

Here's a great example of product placement, from the movie Wayne's World: