The Myth of the Outside Strategy: Mass Media News Coverage of Interest Groups
2006; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 23; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/10584600600976989
ISSN1091-7675
Autores Tópico(s)Social Media and Politics
ResumoAbstract The ability of interest groups to make their views heard is a central tenet of pluralist views of American politics. Despite consensus about the importance of news coverage to interest groups pursuing "outside strategies," however, little work has examined the ability of ordinary groups to make news. I argue that the best predictor of an interest group's ability to use the mass media as a political tool is the level of organizational resources (money, members, staff, etc.) it enjoys. Through an investigation of the quantity and quality of news coverage received by a sample of 244 interest groups, I show that uneven distribution of resources leads to heavy concentration of news on the largest and wealthiest groups as well as to important differences in how the media portray group actions. I conclude that the outside strategy is more a romantic myth than an accurate portrayal of the American system. Keywords: interest groupsmass medianews coveragepluralism Notes aDefined as a membership organization that has only individuals as members. A non-membership group is an organization that has no members. 1. The data in question were initially collected in 1996 and early 1997. 2. The Encyclopedia of Associations identified as "public policy" groups those that work across a range of policy issues (the Christian Coalition, Brookings Institution, and American Enterprise Institute fall into this group, for example). 3. Previous research has established that corporations, in particular, rely far more heavily on "inside strategies" of influence than on media strategies (CitationSalisbury, 1984; CitationSchlozman & Tierney, 1986; CitationWalker, 1991; CitationHeinz et al., 1993; CitationWilson, 1995). Walker notes, for example, that "business interests will not avoid political conflict if it becomes necessary but normally choose to pursue 'inside' strategies of influence that capitalize upon their wealth and prestige rather than becoming involved in open controversies that would be featured in the mass media" (CitationWalker, 1991, p. 11). 4. The newspapers included the Detroit Free Press, San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, Washington Post, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Boston Globe, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, New York Times, Seattle Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Denver Post, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The three television evening news programs were those of ABC, NBC, and CBS. The news magazines were Time and US News and World Report.
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