The media and advertising come up often in IELTS Writing Task 2. You may be asked whether news on social media can be trusted, whether advertising harms children, whether it should be restricted and how the media shape peopleās opinions and habits. In Speaking Part 3, the examiner may ask where you get your news and why itās so easy to persuade people to buy things they donāt need.
The trap in this topic is the word advertising itself. English has at least three words where you might expect one. Advertising is the activity and the industry as a whole, and itās uncountable, so advertisings is a mistake. A single advert or banner is an advert, an ad or an advertisement. A TV or radio advert is a commercial. Learners most often write advertisings or an advertising, and the mistake then repeats in every paragraph of the essay. News works the same way: it ends in -s and looks plural, but in English the news is.
Below are 26 collocations in three subtopics, the typical mistakes people make with them, and an example of how LetsWords gives feedback on a sentence youāve written. Youāll find the other exam topics in our collection of IELTS vocabulary by topic.
Media and advertising: words and collocations
News and journalism
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| the mass media | newspapers, TV, radio and websites that reach large audiences | The mass media shape what many people consider important. |
| news coverage | how much and how the news reports something | The election received wide news coverage, but most of it focused on scandals. |
| hit the headlines | to become a major news story | A local story can hit the headlines within hours if it is widely shared. |
| a reliable source | a source of information you can trust | Students should learn to tell a reliable source from an anonymous blog. |
| biased reporting | news that unfairly favours one side | Biased reporting can make readers distrust even accurate news. |
| investigative journalism | journalism that uncovers hidden facts | Investigative journalism often exposes corruption that officials want to hide. |
| freedom of the press | the right of the media to report without control | Freedom of the press is a key safeguard against the abuse of power. |
| invade sbās privacy | to intrude into someoneās private life | Photographers who follow celebritiesā children invade their privacy. |
| misinformation | false or inaccurate information | Misinformation often spreads faster than any later correction. |
The influence of the media
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| have an influence on | to affect | Television still has a strong influence on how older people vote. |
| shape public opinion | to influence what people think | Newspapers no longer shape public opinion as they once did. |
| raise awareness of | to make people know more about a problem | Documentaries can raise awareness of problems that politicians ignore. |
| a role model | someone people want to copy | Celebrities become role models for teenagers whether they like it or not. |
| be exposed to | to come into contact with something regularly | Children are exposed to advertising in almost every app they use. |
| keep up with the news | to stay informed about current events | Many young people keep up with the news through social media rather than newspapers. |
| go viral | to spread very quickly online | A short video can go viral overnight and reach millions of viewers. |
Advertising
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| an advertising campaign | a planned series of adverts | A clever advertising campaign can turn an ordinary product into a must-have. |
| a target audience | the people a product or message is aimed at | Every advert is designed with a specific target audience in mind. |
| promote a product | to advertise a product to increase sales | Influencers are paid to promote products to their followers. |
| brand loyalty | the habit of always buying the same brand | Adverts for teenagers are designed to build brand loyalty that lasts for years. |
| misleading claims | statements that give a false impression | Misleading claims about health benefits should be banned. |
| persuade sb to buy | to get someone to buy something | Adverts persuade people to buy things they do not need. |
| sponsored content | material paid for by a brand | Sponsored content is often hard to distinguish from an honest review. |
| impulse buying | buying things without planning to | One-click payments and constant adverts encourage impulse buying. |
| consumer culture | a way of life centred on buying things | Constant advertising feeds a consumer culture in which people define themselves by what they own. |
| word of mouth | recommendations passed from person to person | Small cafƩs often grow through word of mouth rather than paid advertising. |
Common mistakes
Advertisings on TV make children want unhealthy food.
Advertising on TV makes children want unhealthy food. / TV commercials make children want unhealthy food.
Advertising is uncountable and takes a singular verb. When you need to count, use adverts, ads or, for TV and radio, commercials.
The news are often exaggerated to attract viewers.
The news is often exaggerated to attract viewers.
News is an uncountable noun and takes a singular verb, even though it ends in -s. One item is a piece of news or a news story, not a news.
I read about it in the Internet and then saw the same story in TV.
I read about it on the internet and then saw the same story on TV.
For broadcast channels and the internet, English uses on: on the internet, on TV, on the radio, on social media. For print, itās in: in the newspaper, in a magazine.
Advertising affects on childrenās eating habits.
Advertising affects childrenās eating habits. / Advertising has an effect on childrenās eating habits.
The verb affect takes a direct object, with no preposition. On goes with the nouns: an effect on, an influence on, an impact on.
How LetsWords explains mistakes like these
While youāre reading the table, every word looks familiar. The mistakes appear when you write something yourself. Hereās what one task looks like in LetsWords.
Youāre reviewing persuade sb to buy. LetsWords shows you its meaning in your native language, you recall the English expression and write a sentence about advertising:
Adverts persuade children buy sweets and make them to want more and more.
The feedback, which LetsWords gives in your native language, points out two mistakes that mirror each other:
- persuade children buy ā persuade children to buy: after persuade, the second verb takes to;
- make them to want ā make them want: after make in the sense of āforceā, itās the other way round: no to.
Adverts persuade children to buy sweets and make them want more and more.
A few days later, the expression comes back in review, and you use it in a different situation, for example in a Speaking answer about influencers and advertising on social media. Thatās how a collocation on a list becomes one you can recall and use without mistakes.
Start practising with feedback on your mistakes
When you sign up, you choose IELTS as your goal and your level, and LetsWords picks the right practice for you. You can try the feedback before you pay.
Using these collocations in Writing Task 2
A task in the exam style:
Social media influencers often recommend products to their followers. Some people think this kind of advertising should be controlled as strictly as television commercials. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
A sample paragraph:
Advertising by influencers should be subject to the same rules as television commercials, because its target audience is younger and less critical. A teenager who watches a favourite blogger promote a product rarely realises that the recommendation is paid for, especially when sponsored content looks exactly like an honest review. As a result, followers are exposed to advertising they cannot recognise, and misleading claims about diet pills or skincare go unchallenged. Clear labelling would not ban influencer marketing; it would simply allow viewers to judge what they see. If a brand can persuade young people to buy something through a trusted personality, it should at least be open about the deal.
Why the paragraph works. The position comes first and is justified straight away: the audience is younger and more trusting. Then comes a chain of cause and effect: hidden advertising ā viewers donāt recognise it ā misleading claims go unchallenged. The point about labelling deals with the obvious objection that this means a total ban. The highlighted collocations name each link precisely, so the paragraph doesnāt need padding with vague words.
Using them in Speaking
A Part 3 question: Do you think people trust the news less than they used to?
Iād say yes, and partly itās because thereās simply too much of it. When you keep up with the news on social media, you see the same story told in five different ways, and itās hard to tell which is a reliable source. Biased reporting isnāt new, of course, but now anyone can publish anything, so people have become more suspicious. And honestly, thatās not entirely a bad thing.
In a spoken answer, the topic vocabulary sits next to conversational phrases like Iād say, of course and honestly, so the answer sounds natural rather than memorised.
Practise for free
- audience: the people who watch, read or listen;
- magazine: a weekly or monthly publication;
- persuade vs convince: get someone to act or make them believe;
- affect vs effect: the verb and the noun;
- have an impact: which preposition follows it;
- raise awareness: draw attention to a problem;
- take advantage of: make use of an opportunity.
From the list to real use
Itās easy to read that news takes a singular verb; getting it right when you write about the news yourself is a skill. Move from the list to real use with LetsWords: practise with the IELTS collection for your level and add collocations from this page to a collection, for example a reliable source or misleading claims. You recall each expression from its meaning, write a sentence with it, and LetsWords points out the mistake and explains it in your native language (Russian, Korean or Vietnamese), while spaced repetition brings the expression back until it feels natural. Then put the vocabulary to work in a full text: the IELTS Writing section has Task 2 prompts on Media and advertising, about advertising aimed at children, news on social media and misinformation, and every full answer gets detailed feedback on all four criteria. When you sign up, you answer a few questions about your goal and level, and LetsWords picks your practice; you can try the feedback before you pay. For vocabulary on other topics, see our IELTS vocabulary by topic.