Article or advertisement? How legacy and new media are blurring lines and creating new hybrid content through native advertising

This Master of Professional Communication Major Research Paper (MRP), a pilot study, examines how native advertising is used by new and legacy media publications in an effort to determine whether the lines between advertisement and editorial content have been blurred. The literature reviewed outlines the creation of added-value content through framing, recognition of persuasion attempts and the creation of synergy through contextual similarity. Within this MRP, a qualitative content analysis was conducted on 5 samples of native advertising from legacy publication The New York Times and 5 samples from new media publication BuzzFeed within the 2015 calendar year. The results of the content analysis have indicated that through framing, persuasion and contextual similarity, the lines between advertisement and editorial content in both publications appear to have softened.