Native advertising may create negative perceptions of media outlets

Authors pictured: Ruoxu Wang, Denise Bortree, and Anli Xiao. Not pictured: Mu Wu, Yan Huang, Ruobing Li and Fan Yang UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Native advertising, often known as sponsored content or promoted posts, is showing up all over the Internet. Users may expect native advertising on sites like Facebook and Buzzfeed, but a discussion has emerged among those in the public relations field on whether the practice impacts the credibility of the companies who pay for it or the news outlets who run it. Are there consequences when companies and news outlets go native? With funding from the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication , a part of the College of , Penn State researchers conducted a study to find out and presented the results at the International Public Relations Research Conference in March. The research team found that when content was identified as native advertising, readers held a lower opinion of the media outlet it was published in. However, the reputation of the company being promoted was not affected.