Advocacy (external and internal)

In general terms, advocacy means publicly providing support for some interest, organization, or issue position. External advocacy, meanwhile, can generally be understood as the act of publicly representing an individual, organization, or idea with the object of persuading targeted audiences to look favorably on the individual, organization, or idea. Thus, the goal of external advocacy is to give an organization a voice in the marketplace of ideas, facts, and viewpoints. Internal advocacy, on the other hand, represents the views of external stakeholders in the organization and thus brings external views into the organization. In so doing, internal advocacy allows the organization to respond to and adjust to meet the demands of societal changes. External advocacy in particular has long been criticized as manipulation and propaganda. As a result, for several years now, there has been intense debate surrounding the question of how ethical and responsible advocacy might look