The Future of the New Media Economy : exploring the entangling identities of advertising and journalism professionals via the phenomenon of native advertising

Abstract: This thesis explores the relationship between journalism and advertising from the individual professional’s perspective. In-depth qualitative interviews with a total of eleven individuals currently working in Sweden or Denmark as either journalists or advertising, marketing and public relations professionals have been conducted, in which native advertisements have been shown and discussed. This has been done in order to explore the entangling identities of advertising and journalism professionals within the state of the new media industry. Native advertising is the digital development of advertising techniques, like the advertorial, that have been used in traditional print newspapers for many years. Native advertising is used by almost all brand and company types, however this thesis will be directing its attention to native advertisements being published on traditional news publishers’ online websites. What makes native advertising so pertinent is found in its name: native. The advertisement is written and designed to have the look and feel of an editorial article typically found on that particular news publisher’s website. There is the tendency in existing literature on native advertising to focus on the audience, or the readers. Studies are therefore focusing on how the readers feel when reading such articles in their news, as well as studying how well disclosure practices are being perceived by audi- ence members. However, this study will be focusing on the producers behind it - on the pro- fessionals’ own thoughts and reactions towards this relatively new advertising strategy, as well as how they view themselves within the political economy of new media. Following a thematic content analysis that departs from the theory of discursive psychology, and drawing upon the analytical tool of the interpretative repertoire, the results from this study suggest that both professional groups’ identities are becoming more fluid as a result of media and technology, that native advertising is viewed as only one facet of the threat to journalism, and finally, that the intense amount of competition felt on both sides is the driving force behind this entanglement of practices. And the latter is what appears to be the direction that the political economy of new media is already moving towards.