Labels and beyond: Mapping the ways national Danish news brands signal
commercial intent to users in their online editorial-looking adverts
Abstract
This paper analyses the ways in which eight national Danish news brands
label their online editorial-looking advertising with labels, logos,
bylines, and explanatory disclaimer texts. The practices are different
and uneven, and whilst they largely comply with current legislation on
labelling of advertising, they do little to help users build schemas and
literacy to understand and handle this new form of advertising. The
paper concludes by pointing to a number of questions that should be
explored in future research on the ability of readers to recognise
editorial-looking advertising as advertising.