Is this an article or an advertisement? Nowadays, reading the newspaper or watching a screen, many have trouble deciding whether they are dealing with news or not. The writing is in the form of an article with the name of the reporter who wrote it. However, looking carefully, one is introduced to the merits of a specific product, company or organization. A former newspaperman explains how advertising becomes disguised as news in a column of the Catholic Times.
These articles are present in all kinds of media. A typical example is the daily newspapers which occasionally have added sections in addition to the regular sections. Reporters cover articles on a number of themes such as the outdoors, cosmetics, travel, automobiles, condominiums, schools, and universities etc.
This is a deviation from what journalism should be. The medium has grown exponentially, and the volume of advertising has plummeted. Using this weakness, advertisers are demanding advertisements written by reporters. Newspapers can create one or two pages of advertising articles on their pages or put short commercial articles in general articles.
Sections of traditional daily newspapers, featuring advertising sections would be difficult to imagine some 15 years ago. Advertisement-type articles at the time, inserted in an otherwise news article would be considered deplorable. Today they wait for such advertising articles. Efforts to attract advertisements are becoming increasingly fierce. Many other internet media do not have special features of their own, but the degree of violation of ethics is much worse.
The readers are now disciplined enough to judge themselves, so let the readers make their judgment to believe or not! False news and fake news is part of our reality. No longer can we say it was in the news and expect it to be believed—advertising articles continue to fuel the media distrust.
Separating factual articles and ads is a basic rule of journalism. The Newspaper Ethics Practice Guideline states that journalists should refuse to accept unjustified pressure, monetary temptations, or appeals from economic forces such as social groups.
Editors editing their articles should make it easy for the readers to clearly distinguish between articles and advertisements which should be marked clearly as advertisements.
The great principle of journalism is accuracy, objectivity, and fairness. Even if the contents of a public statement written in the name of a reporter are correct and it is good information for readers, it is not an article. This is a one-sided way to convey the merits of a particular object, so there is no objectivity and fairness.
However, these aberrations are not subject to legal sanctions. Self-regulatory organizations of each media type are to conduct studies and disciplinary action. However, autonomous regulatory bodies that are well aware of the harsh survival environment of the media will deal with the issue only as a formality. According to a survey by the Korea Newspaper Ethics Committee, publicity articles including advertising articles have increased greatly since 2009. This is in line with the period when advertising revenue for existing media has falling sharply. The crisis of journalism is more serious because traditional newspapers are leading the derailment.
Fake news, fake information, speculative news, news that is biased by interests and ideas, distortions, exaggerated titles, and even ad-style articles are all in the mix. The media revolution is so chaotic that it is flowing into a massive mess of tangled facts and falsehoods. The collapse of the boundaries between real news, fake news, articles, and advertising is helping to break down the boundaries between truth and non-truth in the world.
