Lines in the sand : navigating native advertising through magazine professionals' policies
Abstract
[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Informed by the persuasion knowledge model and advertising ethics theory, this research uses a representative case study to qualitatively analyze both (1) 176 native advertisements and editorial department stories from one regional special-interest magazine based in the Midwest and (2) five interview recordings from five employees within this magazine. The research seeks to gain a better understanding of how magazine practitioners make use of native advertising in their publications, why they feel the practice is necessary and what rules they use to guide their practice. The core finding of this research is that magazine professionals believe native advertising to be a necessary tool in the pursuit of profit. In order to justify the practice, these professionals emphasize that native advertising should provide a service to the reader. The research also found that practitioners purposefully design native advertising to mimic editorial content, but the line between mimicry and replication remains somewhat unclear. Finally, the research probes the concept of industry-wide guidelines for native advertisement usage, but practitioners remain divided on whether these guidelines are a practical idea. Through the study of one magazine, this research offers an informed understanding of how native advertising has proliferated in magazine media and what work must be done to shape it in the future.
Degree
M.A.
Thesis Department
Rights
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