Advocacy Groups

Group Types

The term advocacy group can be applied to any collective with shared social or political objectives that actively seeks to influence relevant institutions in order to achieve those objectives. When assessing advocacy groups' relationship to journalism, news media can serve best as a mechanism by which advocacy groups publicize their goals. Any advocacy group, regardless of its specific cause, seeks positive media coverage for the group and its cause.

News coverage is a vital mechanism by which these groups make the public aware of their stance and possibly increase the group's constituency. It also helps legitimize their position in the minds of decision-makers, whether they are elected officials, administrative policymakers, or business leaders.

There is a wide range of organizations that focus specifically on the practices and institutions of journalism. The content of news, structure of news organizations, and relationship between journalism and the democratic process are all points of focus for a diverse and vocal advocacy community. Among the more well known of such groups are Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), Project Censored, the Project for Excellence in Journalism, Reporters Without Borders, the Society for Professional Journalists, and Free Press.

Some of these, such as FAIR, the Project for Excellence and Journalism, and Project Censored, are concerned primarily with monitoring and publicly critiquing the nature of news coverage. These “watchdog” groups seek to hold news outlets accountable to specific journalistic standards. Many watchdog groups have a strong ideological orientation, operating on behalf of a broader political agenda. There often are public duels over whether news media are too liberal or conservative. Many advocacy groups focus on specific elements of news coverage, such as political news, or news about the environment.

Many groups also advocate on behalf of some part of the journalism community. Thus, for instance, international groups such as Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists work to protect reporters in their professional rights (free speech, the right to maintain confidential sources, etc.), but also when they could be in physical danger. Many recent high tension situations such as conflicts in the Middle East have seen reporters harmed, kidnapped, or killed while gathering and reporting news.

Other advocacy groups are concerned with particular subsectors of the journalism community. Organizations such as the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Federation of Press Women, and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists promote job opportunities and programs designed to increase newsroom diversity. A key underlying premise of these organizations is that journalism institutions must be representative of the demographic diversity of the country.

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