Navigating the Ethics of Branded Content

Maddie Fisher

MF909217@ohio.edu

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Over the past decade, the public's trust in American media has been alarmingly low. With the concept of "fake news," political tensions, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, media professionals have been battling to protect their credibility. Yet, according to Edelman's trust barometer from January 2021, social media trust is at an all-time low of 27%, and 56% of Americans believe that the media is deliberately trying to mislead the public. 

A marketing tactic that arguably contributes to the media trust crisis is branded content. USC Annenberg defines branded content as "Paid content created and delivered outside of traditional advertising means, using formats familiar to consumers to promote a brand — either implicitly or explicitly — through controlled storytelling." 

In short, branded content is created by marketing professionals for advertising purposes. Journalists themselves have no part in writing those posts, but they are shared via established channels alongside genuine content. Many consumers have trouble differentiating between what is accurate news content and what is an advertisement. 

As the PR and news industries evolve, there is an increasing economic need for creative advertisements that will hold audiences' attention. Whether or not the professionals of these industries agree with branded content, its success has proven that it isn't going anywhere. However, some steps can ensure that these issues are navigated ethically.

Edelman has released a list of five ethical guidelines to serve as the industry standard. For example, branded content needs to: be disclosed as paid, allow for unfiltered public engagement, not interfere with earned media, stay current, and not be written by news staff. If those guidelines are followed, branded content can exist alongside genuine media in complete transparency. 

While the responsibility mainly falls onto publications to be sure that there is a balance between paid and genuine media, there are still things that audiences should consider when choosing what content they want to consume. Readers should know that the true purpose of journalism is to inform, not to sell. They should assume that if something has a "sales" tone, there is a chance that they are being advertised. On the opposite side of that coin, readers should also trust that not every post they read is a sales pitch. Plenty of real, enriching news content is still out there, and at the end of the day, journalism's purpose is to serve the public.