Virtual sources: organized interests and democratization by the Web

Abstract

Journalism advertorials, a form of outside lobbying by organized interests, are directed at members of the working press to influence the news they produce to create a favorable policy and public opinion environment in which organized interests can pursue their objectives. Political actors, including organized interests, adapt to changes in communication technology. Research has shown a precipitous decline in the number of advertorials in the two most prominent professional journalism periodicals. However, organized interests continue to care how they are portrayed in the press. We hypothesize that organized interests have adapted and now use journalist friendly Web sites to assist the working press. We examined the Web to see if 368 organized interests (classified into five types) that sponsored 2,510 advertorials between 1985 and 2000 had Web sites, and whether those sites contained Media Centers and nine other features that would serve journalists in the production of news stories. We found almost all organized interests had Web sites, most had Media Centers (economic organized interests utilized them more than other types), and organized interests with Media Centers provided more journalist-friendly elements than sites without Media Centers. We found parity among the five types of organized interests in terms the number of elements provided and their overall friendliness to journalists. We conclude that the organized interests migrated to the Web, contributing to a more level playing field among sectors of organized interests.

Notes

1 Exceptions are Waltzer (1988), Loomis and Sexton (1995), and our two studies.

2 The 72 cases with zero elements include 42 organizations that did not have a Web site, plus 30 organizations that had a Web site but none of the specific features we coded.

3 The two organized interests topping the list were Brown and Williamson Tobacco and ICI (Investment Company Institute). Those with 9 elements were: American Osteopathic Association, America Plastics Council, CARE, Du Pont, Exxon (now ExxonMobil), GreenPeace USA, GTE (now Verizon Communications), Mobil (now ExxonMobil), National Right to Work Legal Defense Fund, National Telephone Cooperative Association, NYNEX Corporation (now Verizon Communications), Phillips 66 Petroleum, and Southern California Edison.

4 The mean for this variable for cases in the study (N = 368) is 3.61; for cases with “Media Centers” (N = 232) the mean is 5.05. We used breakpoint = 4 to divide the cases.