Global Media Journal

Gennadiy Chernov

This two-phase study deals with the phenomenon of “stealth advertising” in Canada. This concept refers to the encroachment of commercially tinted messages into broadcast news segments. Different theories of commercial speech were used as a theoretical framework. The study combined mixed methods, content analysis and in-depth interviews. The first phase concentrated on the frequency and actual time spent airing commercially influenced messages in television newscast segments. The sample consisted of eight randomly selected English-language markets across Canada including news stations affiliated with CBC, CTV and Global. Seventy-five newscasts were recorded and content-analyzed. The analysis demonstrated that private television stations used more explicit and aggressive stealth advertising than publicly owned ones. In subsequent interviews, the news directors and sales managers of some of these stations denied that they yield to outside commercial pressures but admitted they may include messages with commercial content if these have public interest value. In the second phase thirty-nine newscasts of a news station affiliated with Global were recorded and content-analyzed, showing high numbers of commercially influenced messages and corroborating previous research findings. Subsequent interviews showed some news decision-makers accept the inclusion of commercially tinted news segments, thus eroding the divide between editorial and commercial contents. This study is intended to contribute to the empirical basis for pursuing the question of corruption of news by surreptitious commercial content.