Townhall reported on a poll this week that outlined Americans' top issues, including inflation, the economy, and abortion. The poll also asked Americans whether or not they approve of the way President Biden is handling his job. However, another poll published this week shows that one issue supersedes all else.
According to The New York Post, a poll from media monitoring firm NewsWhip found that the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard is garnering more social media engagement than any other topic, including abortion, inflation, Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, the war in Ukraine, the coronavirus pandemic, among others.
A graphic from NewsWhip published by the Post showed that the trial gathers about 508 social interactions per published article. Elon Musk garners 417, Joe Biden accumulates 170, abortion gathers 141, and inflation gathers around 70 interactions.
The data firm claims that the captivating courtroom drama has garnered an average of 508 social media interactions — i.e. likes, comments and shares — for each published article over the past month.
That is almost five times as much engagement as articles pertaining to abortion (141 social media interactions) and more than 10 times as much engagement as articles about COVID-19 (44 social media interactions).
“Hands down it’s a record-setter for us,” Rachel Stockman, president of Law & Crime network, told Axios of the trial on Wednesday.
The Post mentioned that inflation and cost of living have been noted as a top concern for Americans in recent months. In addition, abortion has been at the forefront since the Supreme Court draft opinion leaked that showed the conservatives Justices are poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. Still, NewsWhips' data shows that, at least online, people are engaging more with content about Heard.
While hundreds of thousands of people took part in pro-choice rallies across the country after the leak of a Supreme Court draft that could strike down Roe v. Wade, data shows millions more Americans care more about Amber Heard — at least online.
In the past month, there have been four times as many Google searches for Heard’s name than for abortion or the Supreme Court, Axios reported.
The only other public figure who has come close to attracting the same level of social media interest as Heard in the past month is her former flame, Elon Musk.
Google searches for the billionaire are up in recent weeks after his Twitter buyout, but Heard’s name is still searched twice as much as Musk’s, NewsWhip reports.
Reportedly, highlights of the Depp-Heard trial, which is taking place in Fairfax, Virginia, have been widely circulated on the video-sharing platform TikTok. Videos with the hashtag "#JusticeforJohnnyDepp" have been viewed 8.3 billion times on the platform. YouTube views of the trial have also increased.
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"It's possible that Americans are using the juicy legal proceedings between Depp and Heard as a distraction from an onslaught of bad news," the Post concluded. "Stories about inflation, the war in Ukraine and the likely restriction of reproductive rights come as the country continues to suffer from COVID fatigue more than two years into the pandemic."
