In our master's thesis, we explored and presented the differences between journalistic and advertising discourse in the age of native advertising. We defined the distinction between journalistic and advertising content as the media's decision whether it is mainly a matter of placing products between journalistic articles or an editorial decision to intertwine the two discourses. We investigated the coexistence of advertising and analysed the legal framework in the Republic of Slovenia and at the European level. In the empirical part of the master's thesis, we applied content analysis methods on Siol.net and 24ur.com, as well as in-depth interviews with journalists, editors, marketers and experts to answer the research questions about how native advertising is integrated into online media, what attitudes the main actors have towards co-medial advertising, and how the boundaries between journalistic and advertising texts are blurred. It was found that native advertising has been present in the Slovenian media for some time and that despite pressure from marketing departments, editorial teams try to maintain their autonomy and act independently within the journalistic discourse. However, with the increasing growth and use of native advertising by advertisers, further (self-)regulating interventions in this area and the adaptation of journalistic discourse to the new reality of communication and coexistence with advertising will be necessary.
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