
Experiment finds under 1 in 10 people can tell sponsored content from articles - DocFeind
https://www.bu.edu/research/articles/native-advertising-in-fake-news-era/
======
Wuzzy2
For serious now: I think the whole idea of “native advertising” just shows how
rotten the whole advertising industry has come. They are completely morally
bankrupt and have zero human decency.

Even the term “native advertising” is an euphemism. In my opinion, this stuff
is outright fraud. Why is this still tolerated?

Why haven't those people been chased out of Internet Town with virtual torches
and pitchforks?

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jarfil
This is why I like news aggregators like HN, Reddit, Slashdot, etc. Even if I
happen to be the 9 in 10 regarding some article, the 1 in 10 will usually be
quite vocal in the comments.

~~~
EasyTiger_
Reddit is an absolute shithole now. I've never seen a website fall from grace
so quickly, not even Digg.

~~~
taurath
With the redesign and their further forcing of it on users with the giant text
and ads all over, it’s tipping away from even tolerable now - looking for the
next minimalist aggregator (HN too specific)

~~~
elektor
Theres a new Reddit alternative that's open source, Tildes.

[https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-
tildes](https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes)

I've been on it for a few months and would recommend it.

~~~
alecco
Sounds good. But how will they reach critical mass? How to avoid being popular
driving it into trash like most other aggregators?

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Crestwave
> But how will they reach critical mass?

Tildes prioritizes quality over quantity.

> How to avoid being popular driving it into trash like most other
> aggregators?

It's currently invite-only to limit its growth and keep its userbase from
being polluted. Later, a trust system will be added for active and trusted
users to help moderate it. When it gets opened to the public, it might also
limit signups to prevent overwhelming floods of users taking over.

Also see [https://docs.tildes.net/overall-
goals](https://docs.tildes.net/overall-goals).

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grifball
I found the ad they were talking about on multiple websites and they don't
have advertising disclosures: [https://www.vt-world.com/americas-smartphone-
obsession-exten...](https://www.vt-world.com/americas-smartphone-obsession-
extends-to-mobile-banking.html) This one says it's from AP:
[https://newsok.com/article/feed/865832/americas-
smartphone-o...](https://newsok.com/article/feed/865832/americas-smartphone-
obsession-extends-to-mobile-banking) this one is similar (probably same
campaign):
[https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150629005126/en/Per...](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150629005126/en/Perpetually-
Plugged-America%E2%80%99s-Smartphone-Obsession-Continues-Admit)

~~~
userbinator
After reading both the article and that ad, I suspect the reason is because it
doesn't resemble any sort of "ad" in the traditional sense --- yes, it's
"sponsored content", but I don't see it trying to actually _sell_ me anything.

~~~
grifball
I just thought it was weird because the HN article says that a disclosure is
required by the FTC. The BoA article has the same title so I assume it's the
article they were talking about.

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mtnGoat
Not overly surprising, these media outlets aren't trying to make it easy to
tell the difference. Rather they are doing the bare minimum so they can claim
they're trying, to stave off regulation.

~~~
calibas
In my opinion, things like this ought to be major scandals that undermine the
newspaper as legitimate news source, especially if 90% of people can't tell
the difference.

~~~
mtnGoat
What? You means ads aren't news? </sarcasm>

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kwhitefoot
The Shell example is a clear example of deliberately concealing the fact that
it is advertising/sponsored content. If a print newspaper did the same there
would be an outcry (in some parts of the world at least).

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elektor
This is great news for corporate sponsors and bad news for the average
consumer.

It used to be easy to block ads when they were simple banner ads. Nowadays,
these ads are injected directly into the newsfeeds of these newspapers.

~~~
news_is_over
I’m quickly arriving at the conclusion that there is no longer anything that
resembles “news” anymore.

Media is so mutated by technology, and unrepentantly and blatantly biased,
that we’ve reached a point of inversion where technology now more frequently
obscures information, instead of surfacing it.

It’s funny that we’re reaching a moment where a tool invented to solve a
problem plays an active role in creating the problem. Initially we solved
informtion overload with search indexing, but it’s not about overload anymore.
Now it’s about poisoning all sources.

~~~
whatshisface
> _Media is so mutated by technology, and unrepentantly and blatantly biased,
> that we’ve reached a point of inversion where technology now more frequently
> obscures information, instead of surfacing it._

There's no clear evidence that the media was better before the internet. If
anything, the internet has connected people together so that they can
_realize_ that the media isn't working for them.

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petermcneeley
Whats more insidious is the articles that dont get written or editorials that
dont appear due to the influence of advertisers. (ie Manufacturing Consent)

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chrismcb
"under 1 in 10?" What kind of metric is that? Why not say the number out of
100? Or in a percentage? And what is it? 1 in a hundred? 9 in a hundred? 1 in
a thousand?

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antisthenes
Does anyone else feel like Google search is now at least 60% sponsored content
within the first 50 entries?

And that's _with_ adblock enabled. Now I don't mind being targeted with
relevant stuff when it's appropriate, but when I'm looking for DIY tutorials,
the last thing I want is sponsored content peddling cheaply made Chinese goods
to me.

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jammygit
I realized halfway through reading the article that I had not checked for a
'sponsored by' disclaimer. I rarely do unless an article feels 'off'. Hmm...

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anotheryou
I doubt there as a clear line between ad and non-ad so it makes sense that for
some sample you get these numbers.

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lettergram
I actually wrote a little application which mitigates this:

[https://lettergram.net/](https://lettergram.net/)

Basically, you follow topics and it sends you relevant material that has been
vetted. You can get it on a monthly, weeekly, daily, or real-time basis.

Overall, I think this is essentially the “end” (if there ever was a beginning)
of an informed population.

~~~
jammygit
How is it vetted?

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lettergram
It’s auto curated, but we use the metacortex platform our company built. That
works by ranking experts in related fields and then ranking content they
discuss accordingly.

It works extremely well, and some of our data sources include hacker news and
reddit.

As such you can see it in action:

[https://hnprofile.com/](https://hnprofile.com/)

~~~
jammygit
Reasonable results from a few queries, well done!

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zepto
Isn’t this just native advertising working as designed?

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Wuzzy2
Plot twist: The article is sponsored content, too.

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