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Media Trends

Axios Media Trends

Google search data shows Americans — particularly those in states most impacted by the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade —are scrambling to figure out where they can still get abortions and what the law means for future access.

Why it matters: Americans are trying to wrap their heads around what this means for the future of women's health.

On searches related to abortion, the top queries included, "is abortion illegal," "abortion ban states" and "abortion pill."

Those most actively searching were in political battlegrounds like Wisconsin, Michigan and New Hampshire — where there are no existing laws that would immediately ban or codify abortion rights, as well red states Missouri, Kentucky and Utah, where a trigger law has banned the procedure.

Top searches about the Supreme Court centered on which justices voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.

This analysis is based on Google Trends data from Friday and Saturday.

Between the lines: Searches for "abortion clinic near me" over-indexed in the Southeast, where a number of states had trigger laws on the books.

The top five states include Mississippi and Louisiana, where there were trigger laws in place, and Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina where there are not.

Searches for 'abortion pill' were highest in red states — Wyoming and Montana in the Mountain West were the top two, followed by Southeast states Louisiana, Georgia, Missouri and Arkansas.

The other side: Searches for "Planned Parenthood near me" were highest among blue states: Delaware, California, Oregon, Washington and New Jersey were the top-searching states in the aftermath of the ruling.

Overall search interest in abortion peaked at 10:56am ET on Friday, about 45 minutes after the decision was released.

What Americans are searching after Roe v. Wade reversal

The top searches for 'abortion clinic near me' were in the Southeast.

Abortion

Politics & Policy

The U.S. faces a range of health care flashpoints — unaffordable drugs, opioids, vaping — as we debate whether to adopt universal care. For now, the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land, but Republicans want to issue it a final death blow.

Health

Data: NewsWhip, Apptopia, SimilarWeb, Nielsen; Note: Cable ratings only include Fox, MSNBC and CNN, from Monday to Sunday; Chart: Will Chase/Axios

Engagement with news content has plunged during the first half of this year compared to the first half of 2021 and in some cases has fallen below pre-pandemic levels. 

Why it matters: Americans have grown exhausted from the constant barrage of bad headlines that have replaced Trump-era crises, scandals and tweets. 

The big picture: The level of news consumption in 2021 took a nosedive following historic highs in 2020. Despite a slew of major stories, readers have retrenched further in 2022. 

The war in Ukraine, a series of deadly mass shootings, the Jan. 6 hearings and the Supreme Court's revocation of abortion rights haven't been able to capture the same level of attention spurred by the onset of the pandemic and the 2020 election.  

Details: Engagement with news content across all platforms declined significantly in the first half of 2022.

Cable viewership across the three major cable news networks — CNN, Fox News and MSNBC — is, on average, down 19% in prime time for the first half of this year compared to the first half of 2021. Those losses skew heavily toward CNN and MSNBC, which are down 47% and 33%, respectively. Fox's ratings are up 12% in that six-month span.

News app sessions for the top 12 mainstream most-trafficked publishers dropped 16% in the first half of 2022, according to data from Apptopia. 

Website visits for the top 5 news websites in the U.S. by unique visits tracked by Similarweb dropped 18% in the first half of 2022.

Engagement on social media with news articles cratered over the past six months, dropping 50% since the first half of last year, despite more articles published, according to data from Newswhip. Engagement is measured by interactions with articles posted, which includes likes, comments and shares.

Yes, but: The steep drop-off in social media engagement with news was likely influenced by Facebook's de-emphasizing news in the News Feed as it seeks to move news consumption to its News Tab.

Zoom out: In some cases, engagement has fallen below pre-pandemic levels — a news diet "whiplash."

Among the top 12 news apps, sessions in the first half of 2022 are down 13% compared with the first half of 2019, per Apptopia.

Engagement with news articles on social media has cratered from the pre-pandemic rate, according to NewsWhip data, with interactions down 42% in the first half of 2022 compared to the first half of 2019. 

The pre-pandemic comparison for cable news viewership also shows a drop, with numbers for the three major cable news networks in primetime down 15% in the first half of 2022 compared to the first half of 2019. Fox News is up slightly, but MSNBC and CNN are down 16% and 35%, respectively. 

Be smart: Interest in the presidency has declined considerably under Biden compared to his predecessor, fueling some of the engagement declines. 

Trump and Biden have generated the same level of Google searches in the time since Biden took office.

In the year and a half after Trump took office in 2017, he generated 7 times more search interest than former President Obama.

The big picture: Survey data shows Americans have grown weary amid what feels like a never-ending cycle of bad news. 

The percentage of respondents to Reuters Institute's annual Digital News Report that said they sometimes or often actively avoid the news is 42% in 2022, up slightly from 38% in 2017. 

Interest in news among those surveyed in the U.S. fell 12 percentage points from 55% last year to 43% in 2022. 

What to watch: A country facing one calamity after another appears desperate for diversions.

Sports and celebrity trials have often overshadowed hard news over the last two years.

News engagement plummets as Americans tune out

Americans appear to have grown exhausted from a constant barrage of bad headlines.

News media

Media

Engagement with news content has plunged during the first half of this year compared to the first half of 2021 and in some cases has fallen below pre-pandemic levels. Why it matters: Americans have grown exhausted from the constant barrage of bad headlines that have replaced Trump-era crises, scandals and tweets.

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

Note: Includes incidents in Uvalde, Texas (2022); Buffalo, N.Y. (2022); San Jose, Calif. (2021); Boulder, Colo. (2021); Virginia Beach, Va. (2019); Parkland, Fla. (2018); Thousand Oaks, Calif. (2018); and Pittsburgh, Pa. (2018). Incidents in Buffalo and Uvalde happened less than 20 days ago; data used is most recent available. Data: Newswhip; Chart: Jacque Schrag/Axios

The shooting massacre in Uvalde garnered huge attention on social media in the immediate aftermath of the attack, but it's unclear how long that focus will last. 

Why it matters: The attention to the attack shows the country isn't numb to shooting tragedies — it's overwhelmed by them.

Details: Data provided exclusively to Axios by NewsWhip shows a public surge of interest in the immediate aftermath, peaking above even the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

The interest, measured in social media interactions (likes, shares, comments) on news articles following Parkland, however, was sustained for a much longer period of time, as students who survived the shooting became vocal gun control activists.

The Uvalde tragedy, occurring just 10 days after the deadly shooting in Buffalo, New York, came as Americans were already trying to process another shooting tragedy, and provided momentum for a growing debate around gun control and extremism.

The big picture: School shootings have been able to spark debate around gun violence more than other kinds of mass shootings.

The highest level of interest in "guns" in the past five years came after the Parkland shooting, according to Google Trends data.

Since 2004 — the earliest Google Trends data is available — the biggest spike for discussion about "guns" came following the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting.

Engagement with the Uvalde story initially soared in the days following the shooting, as people eagerly scrambled to learn more about what happened. 

Conflicting reports from law enforcement officials created an even bigger information vacuum that the public was desperate to fill, said Caroline Orr Bueno, a behavioral scientist who focuses on social media manipulation. 

"On numerous occasions, there were multiple different stories being told by different officials — for example, we were told both that the gunman had barricaded himself in the classroom, and that police had 'contained' him in a classroom," she said. 

"[O]nce the acute crisis is over, we usually expect to see much more reliable information that doesn’t continue to change," Orr Bueno noted. "But after the Uvalde shooting, that didn’t happen."

Between the lines: The unrelenting pace of mass shooting events in the U.S. has made it harder for a single event to rally the country's attention.

Gun control issues broadly tend to supplant attention to a single story in the aftermath of major attacks. But attention to that debate also tends to fade as the political news cycle shifts in response to other breaking news events. 

Zoom in: The two stories about the Uvalde shooting that online readers engaged with most chronicled the breaking news about the shooting and the number of deaths.

Five of the top 10 stories covered the heart attack death of a grieving husband of one of the slain Robb Elementary teachers.

What to watch:  It's unclear whether engagement with the Uvalde story will increase again as the story evolves.

In the case of Parkland, social media engagement began to increase later around the story when student survivors began to speak out publicly in favor of gun control. 

Methodology: The chart is based on data from NewsWhip, exclusively provided to Axios, that shows how much social media engagement stories about select shootings received in the 20 days following each shooting incident. 

Because the Buffalo and Uvalde shootings happened so recently, data for the shootings only reflects 16 and 7 days out from those incidents, respectively.

Dallas

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Uvalde tragedy captures America's fleeting attention

The country isn't numb to shooting tragedies — it's overwhelmed by them.

Uvalde, Texas school shooting

A chart showing online engagement for each day after select U.S. mass shooting incidents.

The shooting massacre in Uvalde garnered huge attention on social media in the immediate aftermath of the attack, but it&#x27;s unclear how long that focus will last. Why it matters: The attention to the attack shows the country isn&#x27;t numb to shooting tragedies — it&#x27;s overwhelmed by them.

Ukraine is entering the next 100 days of the war without the same online attention it had going into the first 100, according to NewsWhip data exclusively provided to Axios.

Why it matters: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Axios' Jonathan Swan last week that global attention has been crucial for Ukraine, but he worries people will get "fed up" and "cynical" and "wants something new." As attention wanes, so will the pressure on world leaders to help Ukraine and punish Russia.

"To the people of the United States, do not get used to this war. ... Otherwise, we are risking a never-ending war ... Don't get used to our pain."

Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska to ABC News

By the numbers: There has been a 22-fold decrease in social media interactions (likes, comments, shares) on news articles published about Ukraine between the first week of the war and the most recent week: from 109 million to 4.8 million.

That trend is reflected in the volume of online media coverage, which has steadily decreased from 520k articles in the first week, down to 70k most recently.

Over a 6-week span in April and May, there was about 6x more interest in stories about Johnny Depp and Amber Heard than about Ukraine, per NewsWhip's data.

State of play: Ukraine is still lobbying for help in its war effort, and it's still being provided, though not as quickly as Zelensky would like.

President Biden announced this week that the U.S. will provide long-range missile systems.

The EU agreed this week to ban most Russian oil imports.

The latest: Zelensky is still making the rounds pleading his case to the world, including directly to younger people who can bring the cause to life on social media.

World looks elsewhere as Ukraine war hits 100 days

"To the people of the United States, do not get used to this war."

Russian invasion of Ukraine

Russia

Ukraine is entering the next 100 days of the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="war" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2022/02/22/russia-ukraine-invasion-putin-live-updates" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2022/02/22/russia-ukraine-invasion-putin-live-updates" target="_self">war</a> without the same online attention it had going into the first 100, according to NewsWhip data exclusively provided to Axios.Why it matters: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="told Axios&#x27; Jonathan Swan" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2022/05/23/zelensky-ukraine-russia-interview-us-support" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2022/05/23/zelensky-ukraine-russia-interview-us-support" target="_self">told Axios&#x27; Jonathan Swan</a> last week that global attention has been crucial for Ukraine, but he worries people will get &quot;fed up&quot; and &quot;cynical&quot; and &quot;wants something new.&quot; As attention wanes, so will the pressure on world leaders to help Ukraine and punish Russia.

China is becoming the most formidable rival America has faced, and the risk of confrontation with Russia, North Korea or Iran still looms. Authoritarians are rising, the chaotic Afghanistan exit revealed the limits of U.S. power, and the pandemic, climate change and other critical challenges continue to pose grave threats.

World

Data: Nielsen; Chart: Kavya Beheraj/Axios 

The Trump era drew many eyeballs around a slew of high-drama political hearings, but last week's Jan. 6 hearing has nearly topped them all.

The big picture: The Jan. 6 committee tried hard to grab America's fleeting attention by holding the hearing in prime time and by enlisting a former network news executive in the production.

Be smart: The Jan. 6 committee has a much higher degree of control about what gets presented than in other high-profile hearings: It can selectively choose who speaks and when information gets presented for maximum impact.

But that impact may have been undercut by leaks of some of the committee's most explosive material.

By the numbers: The hearing last week nearly doubled the TV audience of the first three games of the ongoing NBA Finals, which averaged nearly 12 million viewers on ABC, per Nielsen.

Major Trump-era hearings also drew high engagement compared to other national TV events. The final games of the 2021 World Series and the NBA finals drew 11.7 million and 9.91 million viewers, respectively, while the Brett Kavanaugh and James Comey hearings drew around 20 million viewers each.

The Academy Awards, Grammys, Emmys and Golden Globes all drew fewer than 10 million viewers in 2021. Even the Olympics opening ceremonies drew just 15.1 and 14 million viewers in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

The latest: Most major news and broadcast networks took Monday's hearing live on Monday morning, including Fox News, which didn't carry it live last week. (It instead carried it live on its sister network Fox Business.)

Still, it's unlikely those broadcasts drew the same level of engagement as the highly anticipated prime-time event last week. Ratings for Monday's hearing are due out later on Tuesday.

Hearings become political theater

The Jan. 6 committee went all in on drawing attention.

Jan. 6 select committee

The Trump era drew many eyeballs around a slew of high-drama political hearings, but last week&#x27;s Jan. 6 hearing has nearly topped them all.The big picture: The Jan. 6 committee tried hard to grab <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="America&#x27;s fleeting attention " data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2022/05/31/uvalde-texas-shooting-attention-parkland" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2022/05/31/uvalde-texas-shooting-attention-parkland" target="_self">America&#x27;s fleeting attention </a>by holding the hearing in prime time and by <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="enlisting a former network news executive" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2022/06/06/jan-6-committee-adviser-james-goldston" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2022/06/06/jan-6-committee-adviser-james-goldston" target="_self">enlisting a former network news executive</a> in the production.

Neal Rothschild

Stories

News engagement plummets as Americans tune out

What Americans are searching after Roe v. Wade reversal

Hearings become political theater

World looks elsewhere as Ukraine war hits 100 days

Uvalde tragedy captures America's fleeting attention