In Search of Political Influence: Strategic Choices and Media Coverage of Political Parties, Interest Groups and Social Movements in Western European Countries

Tresch, Anke; Fischer, Manuel (2015). In Search of Political Influence: Strategic Choices and Media Coverage of Political Parties, Interest Groups and Social Movements in Western European Countries. International Political Science Review, 36(4), pp. 355-372. Sage 10.1177/0192512113505627

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Outside lobbying is a key strategy for social movements, interest groups and political parties for mobilising public opinion through the media in order to pressure policymakers and influence the policymaking process. Relying on semi-structured interviews and newspaper content analysis in six Western European countries, this article examines the use of four outside lobbying strategies – media-related activities, informing (about) the public, mobilisation and protest – and the amount of media coverage they attract. While some strategies are systematically less pursued than others, we find variation in their relative share across institutional contexts and actor types. Given that most of these differences are not accurately mirrored in the media, we conclude that media coverage is only loosely connected to outside lobbying behaviour, and that the media respond differently to a given strategy when used by different actors. Thus, the ability of different outside lobbying strategies to generate media coverage critically depends on who makes use of them.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Institute of Political Science

UniBE Contributor:

Fischer, Manuel (B)

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 320 Political science

ISSN:

0192-5121

Publisher:

Sage

Language:

English

Submitter:

Manuel Fischer

Date Deposited:

25 Mar 2015 09:32

Last Modified:

29 Mar 2023 23:34

Publisher DOI:

10.1177/0192512113505627

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/65473

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