Press Contact Staff as Political Communicators in Danish Interest Groups: The Role of Media Work in Public Affairs

• In Event: The Role of Media in Politics

Abstract

Recognizing that interest groups are political actors that exist to secure members’ interests, we explore their news media work as a form of public affairs. Through interviews with press contact staff at 55 Danish interest groups, we discovered that lobbying is a prioritized from of public affairs, with media work often playing an important, albeit informally-coordinated and subordinate role. Reflecting the mediatization of politics literature, press staff adapt to both a media logic and a political logic, carefully considering their work’s newsworthiness and political consequences. Indeed, media work aims at setting and advancing political agendas, as well as nurturing relationships with politicians. With reference to the well-known risks to these relationships, and the negotiation process itself, when simultaneously appealing to the media and lobbying, our respondents address these risks through careful timing and efforts to save politicians’ face, advance politicians’ political profiles, and grant credit to politicians for positive policy outcomes.

Authors

• N. Leila Trapp, Aarhus University

• Bo Laursen, Aarhus U