Various studies have demonstrated the relation between organizational properties of interest groups and their influence and media presence. In general, staff qualifications, financial leverage and degree of professionalization are considered indicative of their political weight. Population ecology assumes these properties to be fairly static. Other theoretical perspectives, however, such as resource dependence and strategic choice, highlight their potentially dynamic nature. Consequently, an interest group’s level of influence and media presence can vary considerably as its organizational properties change over time.
In this paper, I explore this alternative perspective. First, I elaborate this point of view by connecting the more generic literature on organizational change with recent findings concerning the organizational dynamics and media presence of national interest groups. Second, the linkage between organizational growth and media attention is illustrated by means of a longitudinal case analysis of a Flemish environmental NGO.
