In 2021, the news media analysis and research company “Mediaskopas” evaluated the main communication indicators of the country’s major universities. The external communication monitoring analysis indicated that among Lithuania’s universities, Mykolas Romeris University (MRU) was a leader last year in terms of expert comments and University communication impact indicators.
Importance of Expert Commentary in Society
With the increase of disinformation during the pandemic in Lithuania, the importance of communicating science and research becomes paramount to counter attempts to mislead the public. Social networks are a popular way of presenting distorted reality. For researchers to manage this is a new task for researchers requiring specialized knowledge and practice.
MRU’s Communication and Marketing Center Head Jurga Strimaitienė says that the experts visible in the public sphere are needed by journalists and the public at large. They help reveal topics that require the very latest specialized knowledge or to explain myths that are floated in society or to unmask malicious misinformation.
According to the analysis of ‘Mediaskopas”, the total number of MRU expert citations in 2021 was 1,736 mentions, which accounted for 43% (in 2020 - 35%) of the total university mentions in the public sphere.
In First Place Among all Cited Universities
MRU has once again confirmed its status as a specialized social sciences university with a high level of expertise in this area. Public Governance and Business Faculty Lecturer and political scientist Rima Urbonaitė is a leader among academic representatives having been quoted 554 times during the last year. Other MRU representatiaves who were included in the TOP 30 of the most quoted academics from higher institutions of education were: Law School Prof. Vytautas Sinkevicius, Public Governance and Business Faculty Assoc. Prof. Vytautas Dumbliauskas, Faculty of Human Studies and Social Studies Lecturer, commentator Assoc. Prof. Virgis Valentinavičius, and MRU Deputy Rector Assoc. Prof. Saulius Spurga.
Leader in Terms of University Communication Impact Indicator
According to the “Mediaskopas” 2021 analysis of Lithuanian universities, the communication impact indicator assessed the following factors important for impact: mention of the University in the first page, title, first paragraph, its dominance in the text (relative to other higher education institutions), the number of mentions, photos/images. All factors are combined in a formula that weighs the impact of each element on the visibility and impact of the company being analyzed. According to this formula, later the average impact of presentations is expressed, which is indicated by a single number. According to this indicator, MRU ranks 2nd among all universities in the country.