In Class: Native ads in the news

Objectives:

After having completed this assignment, students should:

• Be able to recognize native advertisements in news publications
• Describe some of the characteristics of native advertisements found in news publications
• Recognize when native ad best practices are or are not being practiced
• Discuss the practice of native ad studios and its justification in relation to the native ads seen in publication

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Steps

• Select a few news organizations that have their own content studio. Describe the exercise to students.

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Teacher’s Note:

• It helps to select a range of publications when it comes to following best practices.

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First, explore native advertising from one of these news publications:

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Answer / discuss the following questions:

• What are the nature of some of the ads you found?
• Do the ads do a good job of giving helpful information about the topic? What is missing?
• Are these news orgs approaching native advertising in a way that you think is transparent and ethical?
• Does it compromise their credibility?
• Is it justified? Why or why not?

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