Organizational features, media publicity, and website use: A case study of nonprofit organizations in a midwestern community

This study examines the nexus of local news media, the Internet, and nonprofit organizations as a case study in Madison, Wisconsin. Considering the roles media play as public spheres and a generator of social capital in relation to voluntary associations, this study specifically investigates to what extent various characteristics of nonprofit organizations yield different levels of media publicity and Web site use. Data were collected using multiple research methods, including public and news archive analyses, telephone and email surveys, Web site content analysis, and hyperlink analysis (N=218). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses reveal that organizational features predict different amounts of publicity through local newspapers and from other Web sites, as well as different levels of Web site use.;Specifically, with respect to media publicity, financially resource-rich, locally-embedded organizations, and organizations with larger numbers of directors on the board and volunteers tend to receive more newspaper coverage, whereas financially resource-rich, non-local, and cultural groups tend to receive more hyperlinks. For Web site use, upper-level organizations with a larger number of staff and environmental groups are more likely to produce more outgoing hyperlinks. Furthermore, older, non-local, environmental groups, and organizations with larger boards of directors are more likely to provide a wide variety of information on their Web sites. Finally, non-local, environmental groups, and organizations with larger numbers of board directors, staff, members, and volunteers are more likely to produce more sophisticated mobilizing features through their Web sites.;Given that local news coverage contributes to the increase of volunteers, local news media may function as a mobilizing agent, thus fostering local social capital. Also, local news media, serve as a local public sphere by publicizing certain nonprofit organizations over others. In this regard, the Internet may function as an alternative public sphere for nonprofit organizations dissociated from local news media, while it may also serve as a supplemental public sphere for nonprofit organizations that keep their relationships with local news media. Considering the interconnectedness among local news media, the Internet, and nonprofit organizations has been previously unexplored, this case study thus contributes valuable insights to the area of media, civil society, and democracy.