PAREDES
Those regularly reading the national broadsheets must have noticed the constant appearance of China-related stories in the form of advertorials.
In journalistic jargon, advertorials are advertisements or paid content that are deliberately made to appear like regular articles or sections of newspapers or magazines. In other words, it is sponsored information made to look like regular news.
As such, advertorials get some of the credibility that comes with the newspaper’s brand of journalism.
And, considering tendency of many readers to just skim through headlines and to not read between the lines or even check the by-lines, advertorials may achieve more communication goals than either an advocacy ad in the usual layout format or a press release.
Newspapers are supposed to distinguish advertorials from regular editorial content.
This is normally done by placing a caption like “paid advertisement” or simply “advertorial.”
Another way is to adopt a design policy that prohibits advertorials from using or imitating current newspaper design template or its standard column structure, selection of fonts and other graphics.
Those design elements are part of the newspaper’s integrated branding strategy meant to reinforce claims to public trust and credibility.
Political propagandists are aware of how this integrated branding mix of a newspaper can be subverted to advance their own agenda.
They prey on newspapers with loose policies regarding advertorials.
And as most newspapers now struggle with steadily dwindling circulation, subscription and the migration of advertisers to online platforms, the offer of a series of full-page advertorials paid in advance is just hard for newspapers to resist.
Soon, as the sponsors of these lucrative advertorials become the newspaper’s biggest clients, they may start to have an influence on its editorial policy and stand on issues particularly when it affects them.
Filipino readers should thus be wary of the increasing use of advertorials in local newspapers by the apologists of the Chinese government who have been trying to promote the Chinese perspectives on contemporary issues, such as China’s trade war with the US, human rights, and her claims on the West Philippine Sea.
China has all the reasons to assert her own perspectives on these issues as world media have been largely suspicious of how the Chinese government have recently been very aggressive in its military expansion and its tendency to forge economic deals with developing countries that often lead to debt trap for the latter.
Critics say that China has been using loans to gradually influence, if not directly control, these poor countries after they find it difficult or fail to pay their debts.
Propaganda is used to mask these intentions. This is part of China’s “soft power” strategy, which is the use of non-military means to dominate other nations.
Theorists of soft power point out the use of bribery or clandestine army of online trolls and paid hacks in mainstream media to influence politics of another nation.
China has been accused of using these tactics to influence elections in poor countries in Africa and Asia.
The Chinese have allegedly bribed candidates of these nations that promise to push for policies that favor Chinese interests.
The recent visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Philippines saw the flurry of accolades and praises to China and her friendly intentions for the Philippines.
This came with news of massive loans that apologists of both governments simply call economic assistance.
It is interesting and alarming that the Philippine government did not disclose the terms of its deals with China particularly those that pertains to our economic interest and national security.
When pressed by demands that such documents be made public, they say that they will soon make them available.
But that should have been done before they were signed, so the people would know what the real stakes are and what the nation was getting into.
Meanwhile, there’s just a lot of good stories about our so-called “best friend” and “trusted neighbor.”