Commercial Communication in the Digital Age: Information or Disinformation? (Age of Access? Grundfragen Der Informationsgesellschaft) (Age of Access? Grundfragen Der Informationsgesellschaft, 7)

In today’s digital age, online and mobile advertising are of growing importance, with advertising no longer bound to the traditional media industry. Although the advertising industry still has broader access to the different measures and channels, users and consumers today have more possibilities to publish, get informed or communicate – to “co-create” –, and to reach a bigger audience. There is a good chance thus that users and consumers are better informed about the objectives and persuasive tricks of the advertising industry than ever before. At the same time, advertisers can inform about products and services without the limitations of time and place faced by traditional mass media. But will there really be a time when advertisers and consumers have equal power, or does tracking users online and offline lead to a situation where advertisers have more information about the consumers than ever before? The volume discusses these questions and related issues. Editor’s Preface Contents Introduction: Commercial Communication in the Digital Age – Disinforming Informed Users? I. Information and Disinformation about Advertising 1.1 Advertising Critique: Themes, Actors and Challenges in a Digital Age 1.2 Information and Disinformation Through Advertising Literacy in Communication Studies: Action Research and Real Social Projects 1.3 Advertising Self-Reference – as Exemplified by the International Festival of Creativity II. Information and Disinformation through Advertising 2.1 Human Processing of Commercial Information in Digital Environments 2.2 Trade Practices and Consumer Disinformation 2.3 Greenwashing: Disinformation through Green Advertising 2.4 The Rise of Brand Journalism III. Information about Users 3.1 Micro-Moments, Liquidity, Intimacy and Automation: Developments in Programmatic Ad-tech 3.2 The Legal and Ethical Aspects of Collecting and Using Information about the Consumer 3.3 The Internet of Things as Disruptive Innovation for the Advertising Ecosystem IV. Inclusion of Users in the Creation of Advertising 4.1 The Rhetoric of Marketing Co-creation 4.2 Spread the Word – The Effect of Word of Mouth in e-Marketing 4.3 User-Generated Internet Memes as Advertising Vehicles: Visual Narratives as Special Consumer Information Sources and Consumer Tribe Integrators List of Contributors – Short Biographies