Think tanks are expected to cut through the prevailing short-term government agenda of the day, and to inject long-term perspectives and research-based expertise into policy debates. In order to do so, they need to attract media attention to themselves in connection with those issue areas in which they have expertise, even if government is focusing elsewhere. Yet, existing studies of media attention among organized interests have thus far ignored the issue context. We argue that sinking costs into research in specific policy areas pays off for think tanks by funnelling more media attention towards them. This is notwithstanding the importance of governments’ own issue agendas, which, if a think tank’s expertise aligns with them, further raises media attention. We substantiate these claims with a content analysis of news coverage of 62 Australian think tanks in 19 different policy issue areas. The results broadly support our argument and contribute to studies of policy advisory systems, organized interests, and group-media relations.

智囊团有望突破当前流行的短期政府议程，并将长期观点和基于研究的专业知识注入政策辩论。为了做到这一点，他们需要在他们拥有专业知识的问题领域吸引媒体对自己的关注，即使政府正在关注其他领域。然而，现有的关于有组织利益的媒体关注的研究迄今忽略了问题背景。我们认为，通过将更多的媒体注意力集中在智库上，将成本投入到特定政策领域的研究中会为智库带来回报。尽管政府自己的问题议程很重要，但如果智库的专业知识与他们保持一致，则会进一步引起媒体的关注。我们通过对 19 个不同政策问题领域的 62 个澳大利亚智库的新闻报道进行内容分析来证实这些说法。结果广泛支持我们的论点，并有助于研究政策咨询系统、有组织的利益和群体-媒体关系。