Document Type

Article

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Disciplines

Communication | Communication Technology and New Media | Other Political Science | Political Science | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Publication Details

Media Studies (Special Issue: Fresh Voices in European Media and Communication Scholarship)” May 2020

Abstract

Against the background of technological change, increasing information flow, and a rising number of communication channels, new opportunities and challenges are arising for communication between interest groups and federal policymakers in Germany. To keep up with further technological developments and the increasingly fast-paced political communication system, it is crucial to analyze lobbying in the context of digital transformation in greater detail. Lobbying as a traditionally non-public part of political communication has been a challenging setting for research. Understanding the general contours of this activity is an important public need - especially for digital lobbying, where a lack of academic research exists. This paper therefore provides an in-depth analysis with emphasis on both communicating sides - lobbyists and federal parliamentarians of the German Bundestag as well as their employees. This analysis is based on a qualitative, explorative stance drawing from 15 semi-constructed interviews and an enriching ethnographic approach. The first authors´ exclusive experience from working inside a lobby agency and also inside the German Bundestag helped this study to contribute to lobbying research with the focus to better understand how the effect of digital transformation in lobbying is perceived in Germany.

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