Brexit would be a game-changer for the EU. It would be an illusion to think that, the day after such a vote, the EU could continue conducting business as usual among the 28 Member States minus the UK.

One of the most effective things lobbyists can do to promote their  work is to cultivate relationships with journalists. Here are some tips for strengthening relationships with individual reporters and expanding and prioritizing your media database.

News Is a Two-Way Street:

The challenges of liaising with the media are in knowing what the media want, and in helping them to present images, ideas and information accurately and fairly. The news media can't be controlled - they have the ultimate control over whether the news angle you put to them is of interest to them, and in turn, to their audience.

The perception of lobbyists as a corrupt, antidemocratic force for dishonest governance is rooted more in myth than fact. Lobbyists are adaptive, forward-thinking expert advocates who are vital to a healthy, self-correcting representative democracy.

Lobbyists often are painted in a negative light because of their influence over policymakers. The media has propagated an interpretation which lobbying appears as a risk to democracy and is viewed as an illegal exercising of influence. Suggestions of one-sided representation of business interests to others advantage, accusation of secret backroom power or even of corruption and nepotism are topics of interest for journalists. Admittedly, the negative public image about lobbying is due in part because lobbyists have done a terrible job explaining how lobbying works

While the level of attention from the media on public policy advocacy is high, it is often off-topic. Journalists are not interested in reporting how public policy advocacy works. Reportages often describe public policy advocates as people with a large network of contacts, and in close friendship with politicians. 

Albania

• Instituti Shqiptar i Medias (Albanian Media Institute)- Tirana

Austria

• South East and Central Europe PR Organisation-SECEPRO Master Programme-Vienna
• Center for Journalism and Communication Management, Danube University- Krems
• Kuratorium für Journalistenausbildung- Salzburg

Belgium

Getting a message into the mass media is a form of outside lobbying that can be useful for interest groups in communicating information to the general public, as well as for simply legitimizing their perspective on an issue. While interest groups work to influence the public and policymakers in a variety of ways, working through the media can be an efficient and higly effective means of agenda-setting.

Tips on Letter/Email Writing

1. Google
2. Apple
3. Facebook
4. The Walt Disney Co. (includes ABC, ESPN, Disney theme parks)
5. 21st Century Fox (includes Fox film studio and television network, Star TV, Sky); News Corp. (includes Dow Jones, the New York Post, The Wall Street Journal)
7. WPP Group