• Scienceblog, Wednesday, July 11, 2007 11:30 AM

Ad messages are infiltrating smaller-market TV newscasts, perhaps as a way to counter DVR-enabled ad skipping, according to researchers from the University of Oregon. And such "stealth advertising" means viewers are unaware of potential slants in coverage as the connection of a story to an advertiser is rarely disclosed, says Jim Upshaw, a professor of journalism.

He notes that commercial messages intended to promote a product or service often "are cloaked in some other garment than a normal commercial." Plus, "stations are not telling their viewers that what they are putting on the air in news or feature stories or in other news content is being done to court a specific advertiser."

He and his colleagues monitored two evening newscasts a month at 17 U.S. stations over four months in early 2004, including a sweeps week. They say that 90% of the 294 monitored newscasts had at least one instance of stealth advertising.

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