Cultural Mediations of Brands

4Changes in the Media Landscape and Transfers of Authority

The case of native advertising leads to questioning changes in the media landscape and, in particular, the transformations of organizations: changes in professions, social importance of the media and their qualification in the public space.

This chapter examines the impact of the economic power held by companies and exercised in the media to make room for brands.

4.1. Procedures for exploiting journalists

Vulgate marketing is perceptible in the manuals of the discipline and conveys a hierarchy of the different modes of communication in which “press relations” are strongly valued to the detriment of advertising consumption modes. They would have the advantage of providing more credibility than a communication identified as coming directly from the company itself.

The media therefore appear to be key players in what could be called “information laundering”, thanks to the journalist’s word, transforming communication, which is necessarily oriented, into information dressed in objectivity.

The work of press agents on journalists is important and well-known to communication experts, but probably below what the general public imagines. The underground work carried out by communicators is generally hidden by journalists who are unlikely to reveal the behind-the-scenes of journalistic production, but a few statements sometimes reveal the energies invested to obtain “press coverage”, dedicated articles or quotations¹.

Mediation ...