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Like many in the public relations industry, I used to ridicule Trump’s “flawed” messaging and apparent lack of understanding of how communications work. I was shocked that he could blatantly push out his own versions of the facts, and label established journalists and media outlets like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and CNN as purveyors of fake news.
More importantly, I was dumbfounded to learn that Trump’s supporters continue to support him despite being presented with undisputed facts that he, for lack of a better word, lies to suit his own agenda. Although anecdotal, my sense is that the more mainstream media tries to discredit Trump, the stronger Trump’s support base becomes.
Being a student of communications, I realized that I must be missing something. The fact that Trump won the Presidency in 2016, and the fact that he continues to maintain his support base must mean that he is doing something right.
My aha moment came when I chanced upon a study that mapped the flow of information on social media during the 2016 US Presidential Election — I have summarized and simplified the map below.
What the map shows is that almost none of Trump’s supporters read mainstream media. This means that when Trump speaks (or Tweets in the past), he is literally only speaking to his…
