Academic studies on Trump and promoting context

Research advocates long ago learned an important lesson in communication: use the "hot topic" of the day. In other words, if society's attention is intensely channelled to a particular topic, then topics in that sphere or tangential to it will be consumed with more curiosity by the public. This fall, thanks to the US presidential election, one of them is Donald Trump.

Ironically, Donald Trump, who never misses an opportunity to persiflage scientists, is helping researchers make their studies more visible. One example is in Romania itself, where the Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences at UBB Cluj get visibility for a "Trump-meter"an electoral test created in collaboration with researchers from universities in the US and the Netherlands.

The number of academic press releases about various studies/research/initiatives referencing Trump or the election has exploded. We have selected some examples of press releases from institutions, scientific organisations and universities. All of them appeared in the last five days.

• Experts see substantial danger to democratic stability around 2020 electionUNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
• How Twitter takes votes away from Trump but not from Republicans - BOCCONI UNIVERSITY (Italy)
• Two million lost health coverage, thousands died prematurely in Trump's first 3 yearsPHYSICIANS FOR A NATIONAL HEALTH PROGRAM (SUA)
• From 'fake news' to 'tremendous success'JOHANNES GUTENBERG UNIVERSITAET MAINZ (Germany)
• Majority of Americans trust Biden to lead US healthcare system amid COVID-19 pandemicWEST HEALTH INSTITUTE (SUA)
• ICE detention centers saw sustained outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, says studyUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN FRANCISCO (SUA)
• Facing up to the reality of politicians' Instagram postsUNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA (SUA)
• Forecasting elections with a model of infectious diseasesSOCIETY FOR INDUSTRIAL AND APPLIED MATHEMATICS (SUA)

I used a similar visibility strategy for public relations material, which offered a unique, Romanian angle on a historic meeting between Trump and the leader of North Korea.

Press release was then picked up by many national media channels, because the information gave them a content values, related to the "hot topic" of that week.

I underlined "valuable" not without reason. For this strategy to be successful and not backfire like a boomerang on the senders, the input must be relevant, interesting and appropriate to the context. Otherwise there is a risk of trivialisation and ridicule.

As in any communication effort, a coherent strategy is more important than a successful momentary stunt.

I have already written about context adaptation strategy in communication in Case study: how I thought up a science article on the "Our Father" prayer.

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