Some pressure groups, in fact nearly all pressure groups use some form of the media to gain publicity, this usually works well as the media ands pressure groups have a two way relationship whereby the pressure groups get to promote their cause and use the media to highlight their issues and in return the media gets the stories they want. When talking about using the media it is not just newspapers, although these are the most popular and effective form of advertisement to use – an example of this would be when F.O.E and Greenpeace put an advert in the independent to advertise a walking protest against the Newbury bypass – around 5,000 protestors attended, Mail shots are also posted through letterboxes direct to members of the public, this is a way that pressure groups can reach a large number of people fairly cheaply. By gaining public support, pressure groups have more chance of gaining influence when it comes to political decision making. This is because the government can see that the cause/issues that have been promoted by pressure groups are not to be taken lightly as a large amount of the electorate are showing some form of opposition to the proposed ideas/plans.
Not only is the media used as a tactic by pressure groups, but another form of legitimate action that is used to try and gain a positive outcome is lobbying. Pressure groups do this as they hope that be lobbying the government and M.P’s, not only are they working within the political system but they are also hoping that the fact that they have the support of a minister backing them will gain more publicity and affect the governments decision making and will go in their favour. An example of when this has been done before is in 1998 when the league against cruel sports organised a mass lobby of parliament in the hope to promote and persuade the abolition of hunting
In order to influence the political process, some pressure groups have been known to go outside of the laws and the formal political processes and take a more direct method to try and promote their cause, examples of this have been when their have been protests against genetically modified food, whereby protestors marched into a field by nights and tore up all sources of G.M crops this was called by the group ‘decontamination’ other examples of this type of action taken by pressure groups include people digging tunnels, living in trees, chaining themselves to trees and buildings. Some groups such as Fathers Rights have taken to climbing on major tourist attractions in fancy dress to get there issue across, which uses the media to their great advantage. Other outsider groups have taken to mass demonstration and even in some instance animal rights and testing protestors have been extremely violent and have been known to use weapons and letter to show their disapproval.
They are many factors that contribute to the success of pressure groups these are –
The size of the membership, the bigger the pressure groups member the bigger its financial power, influence of the media, government, and to arrange large scale demonstrations, strikes and marches, for example trade union have wealthy members and a great number of members. The greater the number of members the greater the disruptions a pressure group can cause, the fuel protests being a great example of this.
The greater the credibility of the pressure the greater its influence on the government , for example the AA are seen as a valuable source to the government and therefore have insider status, as they provide expertise and a greater knowledge and understanding of issues such as the London congestion charge.
A good understanding of the political and parliamentary process, this aids the pressure groups in manipulating the system to work to its advantage.
Which party is in government will make a difference as some groups may gain insider status with one party but an outsider status with another, this is not guaranteed though, pressure may fall in and out of favour with the same party over time.
The mood of the nation greatly affects the success of a pressure group. A pressure group will have a greater chance of influence if the public support their cause or issue and example of this was the 2000 fuel strikes, this gained the mood of he public and in affect the media, although financially it was not a great success, it was on the scale of the protest and the amount of media coverage and public support.
The pressure groups objectives also affect how successful there are, for instance a pressure groups with objective such as Snow Drop campaigning against the use of hand guns will be more successful than a pressure group with more than one objective as it is much easier to work on one issue than five such as Greenpeace.
