Seen, Read, Heard 2024: Analyzing the Most Salient News Events

Key Takeaways

• It was Trump’s year. The two most salient news stories of 2024 focused on Donald Trump, with more than 3 in 5 voters hearing “a lot” about his survival of an assassination attempt and victory over Kamala Harris — the highest percentages among more than 500 events tested in real time. President Joe Biden’s decision to end his campaign and endorse Harris also ranked near the top, as did his pardon of his son, Hunter. Natural and unnatural disasters such as storms Milton and Helene and the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore also made waves with most voters. Along with the attempt on Trump’s life, the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia were 2024’s most resonant acts of violence.
• Partisan consumption gaps persist. For the seventh year in a row, Democrats were more likely than Republicans to report hearing a lot about the average news event. The news events that elicited the largest partisan gaps in consumption on either side of the aisle invariably featured damaging news cycles about the political opposition, from GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s refusal to say whether Trump lost the 2020 election to accusations that Biden referred to Trump supporters as “garbage.”
• Many young voters tuned out mainstream news. The youngest voters — who swung away from the Democratic Party and helped fuel Trump’s victory — were far less likely than the oldest to report hearing a lot about the average news story tested, 17% to 27%. Instances of the inverse were rare but enlightening, with the intersection of popular culture and online virality a key feature: The feud between rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake and a 50-part TikTok series topped the list, with the youngest voters being at least 20 percentage points more likely than the oldest voters to hear a lot about those stories.