මුදල් ගෙවන ලද දැන්වීමක් වෙනුවෙන් ලියන ලද ලිපියක්ද?

Abstract

In the months of May and June 2019, Sunday Divaina, Sunday Aruna, Sunday Lankadeepa and Sunday Mawbima published articles that appeared to be advertisements/advertorials, indirectly promoting particular brands and companies. Though they seemed to be paid promotional content, it was not mentioned in the articles that they were paid advertisements. When it is unclear to the reader that it is an advertorial, it becomes ‘information’ verified by the newspaper by default. It consequently creates a bias about a particular product in the reader, incapacitating the reader to make an informed choice about the product. When a newspaper is not transparent that an article is an advertisement, it affects the credibility and accuracy of a newspaper.