Interessenvertretung auf Medienmärkten aus Akteursperspektive

Given the rising importance of political advocacy in the media sector, both with respect to national and transnational (EU) media policy making, this article focuses on media lobbyists as a specific group of media policy actors. Based on existing research addressing lobbying in policy making in general, the article first discusses in how far media lobbyists are characterized by distinct attributes (e.?g., due to the societal function of media and the actors’ privileged access to the public). Empirically, the paper relies on structured interviews with nine German media lobbyists examining their professional identity and working practices. Results confirm findings from studies on lobbyists in general (e.?g., with respect to necessary professional skills, experts’ career and academic background) whereby media lobbyists’ privileged access to the public cannot be confirmed. Overall, this study’s findings shed light on a so far neglected group of actors in media policy making.