Maryann Barakso

Winning Coverage News Media Portrayals of the Women's Movement, 1969–2004

Contemporary feminist scholars and activists often criticize the womens movement for focusing on a narrow agenda that does not represent the true needs of American women.Yet a review of the agendas of womens movement organizations reveals a broad concern for many of the issues that they are criticized for ignoring. What explains this disconnect? The authors argue that the news media plays a crucial role in shaping the perceptions of social movements by choosing to cover some agendas and not others.Analyzing coverage of womens movement organizations in television and print news media, the authors find that reporters have exercised a great deal of discretion over which womens movement issues they have chosen to report on during the past three decades. In particular, this has led to overrepresentation of the abortion issue in news coverage of womens movement organizations and an underrepresentation of issues that women believe should be more of a priority for the movement. The authors’ findings underscore the importance of the news media not only for bringing attention to social movements, but also for how they portray the issue agendas of these movements.

Exit, Voice, and Interest Group Governance

Interest groups constitute critical mediating institutions linking citizens and political elites, thereby enhancing participation and representation at all levels of government. But to what extent are citizens connected to the organizations to which they belong? In this article, we demonstrate that some voluntary organizations are structured more democratically than others and examine the reasons for these differences. Analyzing the bylaws of a random sample of 114 national membership organizations, we find that groups from which exit is more costly (professional associations and unions) are structured more democratically than those in which members face fewer barriers to exit (citizen associations). Our findings raise important concerns about the extent to which members of citizen associations are provided meaningful avenues for participation and, ultimately, the extent to which these organizations truly link citizens to their government.

Civic Engagement and Voluntary Associations: Reconsidering the Role of the Governance Structures of Advocacy Groups

Despite the ubiquity of politically oriented voluntary associations, many scholars are unimpressed with the opportunities available for civic participation within the interest group sector. I argue that the dismissal of interest groups as insignificant contributors to civic life has been hasty. We lack data regarding the avenues available to group members to participate in ways other than check writing. Analyzing the political infrastructure of the National Organization for Women (NOW), I show that understanding the internal structure and political dynamics of advocacy groups can contribute to the debate about whether and how member-based political groups impact citizens’ political engagement. Specifically, the governance structure of such groups reveals the extent to which members are, or could be, significant partners in decision-making processes. Finally, I note the contributions associations such as NOW make to the civic education of citizens as well as to the provision of “free spaces” for the exchange of ideas among them.

Assessing the Importance of Financial and Human Capital for Interest Group Sector Strength across American Communities

One of the most profound changes in the interest group sector over the last fifty years is interest groups’ increasing need to attract financial donors in order to assure long-term sustainability. Groups’ growing propensity to attract ‘chequebook’ members is thought to compromise their ability to foster the personal involvement of individuals in their communities. Yet we know very little about the consequences of these dynamics for the strength of the interest group sector in American communities. This widespread macro-level analysis of the interest group sector indicates that human capital is more important than financial capital for the strength of a communitys interest group sector. Financially disadvantaged communities may still enjoy the benefits of a strong interest group sector provided they have a citizenry equipped with time to donate.