On Advocacy Think Tanks' Content-driven Influence Mechanism

As content generator and value carrier in the marketplace of ideas,advocacy think tanks are active intellectual marketers lobbying policy makers,social elites and the public by means of organizational communication and new media communication,in order to fulfill their visions.Based on literature review,the research outlines advocacy think tanks' role in producing and promoting ideas,summarizes the targets of think tank idea marketing,and sheds light on progresses and deficiencies in think tanks influence and global influence research hitherto.Several case studies on advocacy think tanks are conducted to reveal the logic of content-driven think tank influence through in-depth interview and secondary analysis.In the light of theories of think tank influence,theories of marketplace of ideas,and theories of opinion leader,the research strips the process of idea marketing down to institutional essentials at play,such as opinion space,circle marketing,and public negotiation.By conditioning the relationship between think tank influence and content they generated,the research discussed 2 typical influence mechanism,namely,raising value empathy by public education,and generating opinion influence by agenda construction.The research put forward strategies with regard to communication capacity building,content platform building,and channel building specifically for advocacy think tanks.Under the recent context of Belt and Road international communication,Chinese advocacy think tanks have a mission to set the trend of worldwide opinion marketplace,and brand themselves as global intellectual leaders,intertwined with their action in the opinion distribution and consensus leading.In this regard,the research gave rational interpretation on how Chinese advocacy think tanks could grow influence being opinion leader and therefore global intellectual leader,demonstrating the mechanism of gaining international discourse power through discourse innovation and agenda building followed by discourse-based and content-driven strategies for branding Belt and Road global intellectual leaders.