Stenger, Katherine / 9
variables tap into the same concept with 49% of the variance factoring along one dimension. In the
regression analysis that follows, I use staff size and founding date as indicators of group resources
because there are more missing data points for the budget variable. The range of data for these
variables is summarized in Table 3.
[Insert Table 3 About Here]
On average, religious groups have fewer financial resources but greater staff resources.
Religious groups are also older, on average, than non-religious groups. This difference is partially
explained by the inclusion of religious denominations in the sample which tend to be older than most
organized interest groups. Although there are differences between religious and non-religious groups
in terms of their resources, interest group access is not statistically correlated with any of these three
measures of group resources. This is surprising because the amount of money and the number of staff
members a group has to devote to a media strategy should theoretically be related to their success in
gaining access to the media.
Group Access and Journalistic Bias
Religious Bias
Contrary to claims of some religious groups who assert that their voices are systematically
overlooked by the media, interest groups representing a religious perspective are common in mediated
deliberations of political issues. Non-religious groups are mentioned approximately twice as often as
religious groups in these mediated deliberations. Of the articles in the sample, 21.4% (275)
mentioned at least one religious interest group while 45.7% (588) mentioned at least one non-religious
interest group. The relationship between religious affiliation and group access is very weak and not
statistically significant.
Data collected from the 1995 Encyclopedia of Associations suggests that religious interest
groups comprise approximately 5% of the total interest group population (Baumgartner and Leech,
1998). In the universe of interest group politics, then, religious groups take up a very small space. In
this sample, though religious groups are mentioned half as often, their media presence is significantly
larger than their five percent share of the interest group population would indicate. Using this
standard as a point of reference, it appears as though, rather than being underrepresented, religious
interest groups are disproportionately represented in these debates.
Within the broad category of religious groups, there were some differences between religious
traditions. Only evangelical Protestant and Catholic groups were represented among the groups
mentioned most often in media debates (mentioned 21 or more times in the article sample). All of the
religious traditions, though, were represented by at least one group that was mentioned between two
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