If earlier it was necessary to call in the help of an advertisement agency to reach out to consumers, now with social media it is possible to take the shortcut to get the audience’s attention. Companies such as Coca-Cola, Nestle and Volkswagen have been shifting subtly from traditional advertising to produce their own content and invest in direct contact with consumers on social networks.
Marketing departments are turning into a kind of newsroom producing newsletters, blogs and compelling videos.
In an article in the ‘Columbia Journalism Review’, journalist Elizabeth Spayd analyses the new direction advertising is taking, that nowadays it incorporates facets of journalism. She says that many corporate newsrooms have proved to be eminently capable of telling stories and to connect with audiences, while traditional newsrooms have become increasingly emaciated. The question then arises — are traditional journalists losing their space? Are companies trying to become journalists? Does that not make them a wolf in sheep’s clothing?
Elizabeth says that she received the answer to this question during a panel discussion about native advertising and content marketing. One of the guests was Tony Haile, CEO of Chartbeat, a company dedicated to the analysis of online content.
According to Haile, the public didn’t care so much with such distinctions. For the average reader, both the content produced by journalists as that produced by businesses could be helpful. Origin does not matter. There are many companies have tens of thousands of Facebook fans “enjoying” their pages. If the reader did not bother, no company would have that kind of response on social networks.
In her article, Elizabeth pointed out that this does not mean that the content generated by companies are 100 per cent good, accurate or honest. But she did note that content produced by neither is those produced by traditional newsrooms.
Even she conceded that distinctions between who produces content is dwindling, citing an article by the journalist Michael Meyer (also published in the Columbia Journalism Review). Meyer’s analysis basically signals the future of journalism as one dominated by multiple functions, and where there is often no distinction between the journalist, publicist and administrator.
“Everyone I talked to for this piece seems to agree that some essential distinction between journalism and content marketing needs to be preserved, but no one agrees on exactly what that distinction should be,” according to Meyer.
