Pros And Cons Of Brand Journalism

For the past decade, brand journalism has been taking over newspapers, websites, and last but, not less important social media. Before digging into the good, the bad and the ugly of these new marketing and journalism fusions, let’s explain exactly what brand journalism is. So imagine a journalist, he spent a couple of weeks researching, writing, and polishing the best article possible about how organic food is the best option for a healthier life. Then his editor comes out asking for someone writing a piece about organic food. The journalist super excited thinks he will get more of a spotlight for this article to then his dreams are shutdown because it will be sponsoring Whole Foods. a most accurate definition would be that brand journalism …show more content…
Yes, is journalism in disguise but if you pay close attention you can see how different they both are. Brand journalism focuses more on creating content, interesting, persuasive content; while traditional journalism is more about going out there and getting the best news article, investigating and talking about the happenings of the world, political, economic, religious and power. “I don’t think the threat to pure journalism comes from brand journalism at all. It comes mainly from the fact not enough people are prepared to pay for it, and party from the way it has been practiced.” (Bull, n.d) This is a very accurate statement but I believe lately brand journalist has become so good that the reader does not even know that that article they are reading is actually sponsored by a company or is related to a certain brand. The transparency of brand journalism has turn pretty sketchy. If the audience don’t pay close attention to an article they would miss the fact that the New York Time article “Woman Inmate: Why The Male Model Doesn’t Work” was sponsored by Netflix’s show Orange is The New Black. There is a fine line between brand journalism and traditional journalism and is becoming very blurry as of lately. Another con that can be also considered a pro is how the audience is the one with the power. “Readers are the authority: Give readers some credit—they’re the final arbiters who will determine which content is interesting and useful and which is self-serving propaganda” (Sasson, 2011) Even when brand journalism has become so good one cannot differentiate between it and traditional journalism, if it is bad readers will tell you, they will even go so far as to share it through their social profiles and say how bad it was. Give me an example of when that happened That’s why is so important to create good content, content that touches topics that people want to talk or hear