Native Advertising on News Websites: The Impacts of Media Organizational Factors on Disclosure Clarity

Abstract

Building on the field theory, this study examined how disclosure of native advertising at popular U.S. news websites may relate to their organizations’ positions in the journalistic field. The study found divergent disclosure practices across websites, between language and visual disclosures, and between native ad links on the homepage and native ad posts on story pages within a website. Overall, older organizations with more Pulitzer awards and younger organizations with relatively more Pulitzer awards and social media followers seemed to execute clearer disclosure. Moreover, the organizations with more Pulitzer awards seemed to impose a clearer disclosure language on native ad links at gateway locations than those with fewer awards but lessened disclosure of native ad posts on the landing pages. The older news websites with more social media followers adopted an obscurer disclosure language of native ad links but distinguished native ad posts more once audiences landed on the content page. This study recommends media effect scholars take a holistic approach to assess ad recognition and suggest publishers build on cultural capital as an ultimate defense against heteronomous forces.