Social Media Influencers: A Lesson Plan for Teaching Digital Advertising Media Literacy

Aware that younger consumers often skip traditional television commercials, an increasing number of advertisers pay social media content creators to incorporate brands into social media content on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. These "social media influencers" rarely label these brand integrations as "sponsored" or "ad," thus blurring traditional boundaries between "advertising" and "content." Cynthia B. Meyers details a short course and an assignment she developed to help students develop the media literacy skills to critically analyze this increasingly important advertising strategy.