Think Tanks in the U.S. Media

Abstract

This article examines the relative media visibility of expertise from a sample of fifty-one public policy think tanks in six national newspapers between 1991 and 1998. We consider media visibility in relation to hypotheses developed from the interest group, media studies, and policy sciences literature and, using regression and descriptive analysis, establish that Washington-based think tanks and think tanks of no identifiable ideology have a distinct advantage in gaining media visibility. Ideologically conservative think tanks are cited with a substantially higher frequency than identifiably liberal ones in the aggregate but not once we control for their greater budget resources, except in more conservative news outlets, where they continue to be advantaged. Disparities in the budget resources of think tanks account for substantial variation in their media visibility, as do ideological and geographic biases linking specific think tanks and media outlets.