Popular Sources, Advertising, and Information Literacy: What Librarians Need to Know

Sponsored content, also known as “native advertising,” is a relatively new form of advertising in which corporate sponsors fund articles in periodicals and often exert significant control over the editorial process. This model is a dramatic reversal from past practice; throughout the 20th century, allowing advertisers and sales departments to dictate editorial content was considered unethical by most observers both inside and outside of journalism. Because the information literate student is one who can navigate both library databases and the open web, this article urges academic reference and instruction librarians to gain a deeper understanding of how advertising impacts the popular sources their patrons use