An effective ‘weapon’ for the weak? Digital media and interest groups’ media success

ABSTRACT

The equalization-normalization debate concerns whether the Internet equalizes politics by empowering resource-poor organizations, or whether it further strengthens the position of resource-rich organizations. We address this debate by studying how interest groups’ utilization of digital media is associated with their success in influencing news media. We suggest digital media is characterized by the coexistence of old and new media logics that benefit resource-rich and resource-poor groups in different ways. Analyzing a dataset of 1,127 Finnish interest groups, we found that groups’ utilization of digital media is positively associated with their news media success, yet traditional ways of influencing the news media remain more effective. Among resource-rich groups with larger public relations staff, blog publishing is positively associated with both media access (media visibility) and agenda-building success (influencing news topics). In contrast, utilization of digital media among resource-poor groups only correlates with agenda-building success, and audiovisual content is more effective than other content. We suggest that while resource-poor groups benefit from network media logic in which the flow of information is initially based on popularity among social media users, resource-rich groups can exploit mass media logic where traditional journalistic gatekeeping is more important. The findings also imply that digital media has not decreased resource-related bias in interest groups’ media access.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media
• normalization
• equalization
• interest groups
• news media

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Conflicts of interest

none.

Notes

1 The variable measuring staff advocacy was heavily skewed and therefore we logarithmically transformed it to make the relationships linear (see Binderkrantz, 2005; Chalmers & Shotton, 2016).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Academy of Finland under Grant number 309934; Kone Foundation under Grant 088880; and the Finnish Government’s Analysis, Assessment and Research Activities under the ‘KAMU’-project.

Notes on contributors

Juho Vesa

Doctor of Social Sciences (DSocSc) Juho Vesa is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences. His research focuses on interest groups, media coverage of climate change, and agenda-setting and agenda-building in the hybrid media environment. His work has appeared in journals such as the International Journal of Press/Politics, European Journal of Communication, International Journal of Communication, and Interest Groups & Advocacy.

Petro Poutanen

Doctor of Social Sciences (DSocSc) Petro Poutanen ([email protected]) is a Visiting Scholar at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences. Previously he has worked as a researcher in the University of Helsinki, University of Jyväskylä and Aalto University. As a researcher Petro has contributed to the areas of organizational communication, social media, and creativity in teams and organizations. He has published research articles in several international academic journals on these topics. Additionally, Petro has been working as a science communication expert and trainer for academic and expert communities.

Reijo Sund

Reijo Sund ([email protected]), Docent of Applied Statistics, Doctor of Social Sciences (DSocSc), works as a Professor of Register Studies at the University of Eastern Finland. Earlier he has worked as a head of the Centre for Research Methods in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki and as a Research Director at the National Institute for Health and Welfare. In addition to his research in the fields of medical science, public health and statistics, he has collaborated with social scientists on topics such as political communication, political participation, and poverty research. Sund has over 180 peer reviewed publications.

Mika Vehka

Mika Vehka ([email protected]) is a doctoral student at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences. His research focuses on interest group politics. At the moment he is studying the internal governance of interest organizations.