Content Confusion with Michelle A. Amazeen

The Media, Inequality & Change Center will be joined by Michelle A. Amazeen, Associate Dean of Research at Boston University’s College of Communication, to discuss her new book, Content Confusion: News Media, Native Advertising, and Policy in an Era of Disinformation.

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We often blame social media for the rampant problem of disinformation, but mainstream news media is also at fault. Not only do news outlets disguise paid content to look like online news articles, a practice called “native advertising,” but new research suggests that this form of advertising even influences the real journalism that appears next to it—both perceptions of the journalism as well as its actual substance. In Content Confusion: News Media, Native Advertising, and Policy in an Era of Disinformation, Michelle Amazeen explores the origins and evolution of this mainstream media practice, how it affects audiences and the industry, and what the implications are for an accurately informed public.

For policymakers, in particular, the book highlights the long-standing principles from governmental regulation as well as industry professional codes that support clear identification of the provenance of content, an issue that will no doubt intensify with the release of generative artificial intelligence in the wild.

About the Speaker

Michelle A. Amazeen (PhD) is the Associate Dean of Research and an Associate Professor of Mass Communication at Boston University’s College of Communication. She also directs BU's Communication Research Center. Amazeen’s research focuses on persuasion and misinformation, exploring the nature and persuasive effects of misinformation and efforts to correct it. She uses a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods to produce results with practical applications for journalists, educators, policymakers, and consumers, helping them recognize and resist persuasion and misinformation in the media.

Amazeen is one of 22 prominent scholars worldwide who contributed to The Debunking Handbook 2020. Since 2021, she has been ranked among the top 2% of highly-cited scholars globally by Stanford University. Her research has been published in leading academic journals and cited over 60 times in policy documents worldwide. She has served as an expert contributor to the Australian Academy of Science, the European Research Council, and the US Institute for Museum and Library Services. Additionally, she has presented her research to the US Federal Trade Commission, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the US Food and Drug Administration.