The Ethics of Advertisements in Online Publications are Ever-Changing

Arianna Guerra 

ag598417@ohio.edu

 

As the public steadily moves away from print media towards digital media, the discussion of ethical advertising in publications has become more complicated than ever before. 

The American Society of Magazine Editors first created guidelines for print advertorials in 1982. Since then, every media outlet has had to adjust to a digital world which led to ASME is continuously updating its guidelines for sponsored content and advertising. 

New concepts in advertising and online marketing are being created at this very moment. One of the newer forms of advertising which is specific to digital journalism is native advertising. 

The Federal Trade Commission defines native advertising as online content that is "often indistinguishable from news, feature articles, product reviews, editorial, entertainment, and other regular content."

In other words, native advertising is online advertising that blends in with the rest of the website which makes it hard for readers to distinguish the publication's content and advertisements. This proves to be an effective method of advertising for the companies that are sponsoring content. However, the publication's ethical values come into question. 

The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics outlines the values that journalism should uphold. Accountability and Transparency is one of it's most important codes. 

"Ethical journalism means taking responsibility for one's work and explaining one's decisions to the public" according to the SPJ Code of Ethics. 

In 2015 FTC released an Enforcement Policy Statement on Deceptively Formatted Advertisements, where they addressed the harm of native advertising and sponsored content.

"Misleading representations of this kind are likely to affect consumers' decisions or conduct regarding the advertised produce or the advertisement" FTC concluded. 

These cleverly embedded advertisements are not limited to a specific publication. In fact, they are a growing trend among large media entities like The New York Times and The Atlantic while also reaching social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

Picture source: adesspresso.com

FTC, ASME, SPJ and other organizations associated with the media have consistently updated their advertising rules and regulations to stay true to their core values in an unpredictable digital world.

In response to the growing popularity of native advertising, ASME released an updated version of its Guidelines for Editors and Publishers to better reflect the ethical values that still apply to online content. 

How do media outlets combat this growing trend of slick advertising? The answer is ever-changing but one thing is for sure, native advertising is not going away anytime soon. In fact, it is more likely that unethical advertising practices will gain more traction in the future. 

Therefore, the pressure is on for all journalism organizations, media outlets and individual journalists to understand online advertising practices and update their ethical procedures accordingly. Their duty will always be to communicate accurately with the public.