I found out what our opinion section said the same way everyone else did: by reading the paper each day. So here’s a quick guide to three kinds of content you might encounter in the media: news, opinion and sponsored content. Examples include putting “opinion” in headlines so it’s visible in social media posts, and adding a note to editorials explaining that they’re independent from news coverage. Sponsored content, also called native advertising, is content that’s designed to look similar to the publisher’s own content — but is actually paid for by an advertiser. The Federal Trade Commission requires that sponsored content be clearly marked, though different publishers use different terms — “paid post,” “partner content,” “from our partners,” “presented by” and similar phrases all denote sponsored content.