Advocacy in the media ecosystem: Today’s PR playbook for the charity sector

The third sector is built on driving change, raising awareness, and giving voice to the voiceless, and today’s media landscape has a plethora of platforms offering access to wider audiences. But with these platforms so fragmented, how can Not-For-Profit organisations connect with audiences spread across online forums, social media, national press, broadcast, and more?

Vuelio’s latest report ‘How news travels in today’s fragmented media environment’ tracks a number of major public interest and politically-driven news stories from the first half of 2025 to provide a map for comms teams in need of coverage for their campaigns.

Here are key insights for comms teams in the third sector:

1. Niche reach outlets are just as valuable as mass media

National news coverage might be impressive to the board, but a crucial lesson for health charities, research bodies, and policy-focused organisations is that tabloid coverage shouldn’t be the ultimate aim for every campaign.

Reaching a small, engaged group of clinicians, academics, or policymakers with a write-up in a specialist journal can be infinitely more impactful for your mission than a fleeting, 10-second mention on breakfast TV.

Have a story that would work for very distinct audiences? Try a two-track comms plan: one for your specialist stakeholders and one for your mainstream fundraising, without risking a generic multipurpose approach that is unlikely to be picked up by the press at all.

2. Politics adds unpredictability

For any charity involved in advocacy, the impact of politics in amplifying, or silencing, a campaign will be very familiar.

Kelly Scott, VP at Vuelio, describes the journey of public interest stories as a ‘pinball machine’ – either pinging to unexpected places from political realms, or quickly falling out of play.

If your issue gets politicised, picked up for party gain, or distorted, motivating third party stakeholders to speak on your behalf can be the most credible asset for the third sector.

Service users, your volunteers, and your academic partners can add credibility and balance to the public discourse.

3. Echo chambers can stop a story in its tracks

The UK media landscape is severely siloed, with one example from our latest report being coverage of surge pricing in the UK. Reporting on this issue was split, with audiences largely staying in their own echo chambers, experiencing further reinforcement of their own existing takes and opinions.

For the Charity sector, breaking through this is a critical challenge. A campaign on the cost-of-living crisis could be framed as a human-interest tragedy in one silo, and a complex economic policy failure in another.

The job of the comms team is to find the ‘connectors’ that break through these siloes – identifying and building relationships with figures and platforms that cut across barriers and build public trust.

4. Your advocacy is the story

Some of the most powerful stories that pick up speed in the press are public interest, and these often start life on social media. But also important are case studies – connecting the media with real people, who have real stories to tell.

This happens to be a superpower for the charity sector. Your work is built on personal experiences and advocacy for communities – amplifying voices, and engaging with people across platforms, can be the engine of an entire media strategy.

5. Adapting to mission-driven comms

This fragmented world requires a new strategy, one built on agility and insight. As Amy Chappell, Head of Insights at Vuelio, advises, comms professionals must ’embed adaptability into comms strategy’.

This means having spokespeople and expert commentators ready to engage. In this landscape, the most credible and authoritative voices will retain a degree of control.

Ultimately, your strategy must shift:

From Endpoint to Ecosystem: Stop treating a press release or a media hit as the “finish line”. Instead, anticipate how your story will evolve as it’s passed between different platforms and audiences.

From Counting to Navigation: Monitoring is no longer about counting clippings. It’s about understanding how narratives are reframed along the way, so you know exactly when to step in, clarify, or amplify.

This new environment is complex, but for charities, it’s a playing field filled with opportunity. Authentic stories can find their audiences in a myriad of ways.

For more on how stories move through the modern media landscape, read the full Vuelio white paper here.