Native Advertising at the Reference Desk

Increasingly, online news articles have become intertwined with advertising. We have ads that that look like new stories and more often than not, consumers have no idea that what they are reading is a native advertising piece, not a genuine piece of journalism.

Wikipedia defines native advertising as “a type of online advertising that matches the form and function of the platform on which it appears.” Hence, native advertising news articles are created with the intent to trick consumers into thinking they are reading a genuine piece of journalism regardless of their disclaimers. Native advertising has been proven to be so successful, that some online media organizations, such as Buzzfeed, have taken advantage of this phenomenon and profit immensely from said articles that are sponsored by major brands.

Not to say that all sponsored articles are worthless, I believe a clearer line should be drawn between these articles and articles that are a product of candid journalism. After all, one could argue that native advertising comes as a result of consumers refusing to pay subscriptions for online media.

Sponsored articles press a threat to reference librarians because for the most part, they are responsible for providing biased free, factual information to patrons. Even though, reference librarians are information specialist, it can be difficult to identify a reliable source if there is a grey are between factual news and sponsored news.

Works Cited

“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Native Advertising (HBO).” YouTube. HBO, 3 Aug. 2014. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

“Native Advertising.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.