The Influence of Social Media on News and Advertisement

Laura Rose Tinkler
lauratinkler@gmail.com

In today's digital age, information overloads internet users. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook feature both news stories and advertisements. Social media influencers push products in a new form of public relations.

Because of this, is it possible for advertisers and PR professionals to maintain their transparency and code of ethics? 

The Difference Between News and Ads 

When scrolling through one's Facebook page, a user encounters many types of posts, including personal updates from friends, commercials for products, and breaking news from organizations. This information overload can make it difficult to decipher the differences between the purposes and motivations of a post. 

The Principles and Practices for Advertising Ethics states, "Advertisers should clearly distinguish advertising, public relations, and corporate communications from news and editorial content and entertainment, both online and offline." It is important that a reader understands when something is an advertisement. 

According to the article Making Sense of the News: Distinguishing News from Sponsored Content by Michael Spikes, however, this clarification can be hard to make and can confuse users. Spikes explains how news and advertisement are presented in the same manner on Facebook: posts that feature an image, a line of text, and a space for likes and comments. 

Images from "Making Sense of the News: Distinguishing News from Sponsored Content"

The article cites the above images as examples of the similarities. The first image features a news article from NPR. The second shows an advertisement for the company Home Chef. At a glance, it is difficult to tell the difference. 

Influencers as the New PR Professionals 

With the rise of social media has come the advent of the influencer. An influencer has a wider audience and many followers and because of this can be helpful to companies and products. 

According to the article Come One, Come All- Inviting Social Media Influencers into the PR Ring, "Social media influencers have fundamentally changed the role of public relations when it comes to reaching today's audience. The balance of power between consumers and brands has shifted and consumers are more likely to trust the people they see on their social media feeds than traditional marketing." 

The PRSA Code of Ethics and Conduct notes the importance of transparency. It states under the section "Disclosure of Information" its intent is "to build trust with the public by revealing all information needed for responsible decision making." 

Because of this value, it is crucial users and consumers can decipher when an influencer's post is PR driven. To help with this, influencers will often use the hashtags #advertisement and #paidadvertisement under the image. 

Moving Forward

The Principles and Practices for Advertising Ethics acknowledges the difficulties of transparency in the social media age stating, "Unfortunately with the dramatic explosion of media sources, blurring of commercial and editorial content is more of an issue today." Consequently, advertisers must work to maintain this principle and continue to find new ways to clarify their motivation. 

We as consumers and users, however, must also be savvy in this new era of information. It is important we read articles and posts carefully and scan for details such as hashtags and sources. Only then can we responsibly absorb social media information.