How much journalism is in brand journalism? How brand journalists perceive their roles and blur the boundaries between journalism and strategic communication

An increasing number of companies and other organizations publish their own news media that resemble journalistic media in terms of content, language and design. The production and distribution of these publications are often referred to as brand journalism. However, although these publications look a lot like journalistic media, they are used as strategic communication tools: They represent and legitimize an organization’s interests and aim to improve brand image, build relations with customers or increase sales. Thus, brand journalism blurs the boundaries between journalism and strategic communication. The present study focuses on brand journalists and analyses their work routines, professional role perceptions and possible role conflicts. To this end, we conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews with editors of corporate magazines. The interviewees described quite strong parallels to journalistic work routines and asserted their orientation toward journalistic norms (e.g. autonomy, unbiased reporting); however, these norms were regularly undermined when the topics covered centred on their own or their clients’ organizations. Most interviewees described large parts of their professional identity as journalistic, but were also aware that they were in a hybrid role between journalism and strategic communication. This hybrid role is associated with a range of expectations that can lead to role conflicts.

Immersive and brand journalism in educational and cultural information. The case of RTVE Lab

The aim of this research is to analyze the use of immersive and brand journalism in the information published by RTVE Lab. The case study method has been used, which combines both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The results reveal that virtual reality (VR) is an attractive format for disseminating cultural news because it enhances the immersive experience of the user; yet approximately only 20% of VR is used to provide information about branded content.

MODEL OF INTERACTION BETWEEN ADVERTISING, PR AND JOURNALISM

The article is an overview of the journalism – PR – advertising relationship at the terminological, empirical-analytical and practical levels. It traces the state of the discussion of these correlations in the post-soviet media such as Ukraine. The study describes that domesticating the importance of the appropriate partnership between the three communication technologies. The thesis is that journalism, advertising and PR create a mutual connection that takes place in an atmosphere of PR and advertising permissiveness and deepens with the development of digitalization, Social network development. The present research is based on a comprehensive approach. The inductive and deductive methods are adopted to discuss theoretical materials, and the interdisciplinary research method is used to detect PR-specific features as a philosophy of a new journalism project. The interpretive approach, usually employed to analyze media text as a complex synthetic structure, was also taken into consideration. The analytical method application identified the modern means of substantiating the ideological, esthetical and informative value of brand journalism and spin doctor. The innovative character of modern media as a behavioral strategy in the advertising and PR industry consists in the fact that it is a form of creative production and behavior rather than adapting a specific communication situation. The article examines the main directions of contemporary interactions between PR, advertising and journalism as a media content creation. In this context, it is asserted that advertising, journalism and PR activities can contribute to the creation of media content. At some point, good media content is achieved not only as a result of this competition but also from the correlation between PR, advertising and journalism.

How news went guerrilla marketing: a history, logic, and critique of brand journalism

For decades, product placement and branded content have invaded more entertainment-oriented media forms; today, the rise of brand journalism (i.e. native advertising and content marketing) suggests that advertisers are now targeting news as a genre for commercial schemes. This article examines that practice through a critical analysis of advertising industry discourse including 28 in-depth interviews with brand journalism practitioners in the United States along with a decade of trade press coverage. It sketches the first historical trajectory of brand journalism and contextualizes the media industry factors that motivate participants’ exploration of it as a promotional vehicle. Drawing upon guerrilla marketing theory, this article further documents how brand journalism evinces a fundamental commercial self-effacement at its core – in mimicking journalistic style and substance – and thus portends a redefinition of advertising as a visible mass communication form.

BRAND JOURNALISM IN THE MODERN MEDIA SPACE. OPPORTUNITIES AND RESTRICTIONS

The article is devoted to the issues of information influence on the audience in the global media space. This material examines brand journalism as a modern approach to interacting with the audience in the modern global media space. Brand journalism is a new interdisciplinary approach to promoting an idea, concept or brand is the foundation for the media influence model used by many companies.

Functions of Copywriting and Brand Journalism in Integrated Marketing Communications

This paper aims to examine the terms “brand journalism” and “copywriting” and establish their similarities and differences. To achieve this, several pre-existing definitions of the two terms were compiled and examined. The study establishes that there is an overlap between the two and researchers have occasionally used them synonymously. However, this paper proposes a clear way to differentiate between the two. Brand journalism has been identified as a part of integrated marketing communications (IMC), whereas copywriting is a specific technique for creating texts related to IMC. While all brand journalism can be classified as copywriting, not all copywriting texts are brand journalism. The term ‘copywriting’ should also apply to texts created for PR, advertising and other forms of marketing communications.