British drama dominates in Europe
This was a transformational year for Europe, with multiple elections and a great deal of high-stakes negotiating in Brussels to organize the continent’s refugee, energy and financial plans. Nonetheless, such events break through with few U.S. voters, as stories about E.U. gas consumption cuts, trade spats with France and Germany and Hungary’s imposition of obstacles on Russia sanctions got scant attention.
Similarly, French President Emmanuel Macron’s securing of an unprecedented second term in office and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s resignation and replacement by far-right politician Giorgia Meloni got little notice among U.S. voters.
By contrast, resignations by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his successor, Liz Truss, the latter of which followed her exceptionally brief and chaotic tenure, were the only non-Ukraine-related European stories to break through to at least 30% of U.S. voters. Rishi Sunak’s ascendance was a little quieter, but still got more interest than continental contests.
In the Indo-Pacific, even North Korea struggles to get attention
The further one strays from the conflict with Russia, the lower the probability of finding a story that resonated with U.S. audiences. Protests in Sri Lanka that ended with the ouster of their president barely registered, and only 5% said they heard a lot about Anwar Ibrahim’s election as prime minister of Malaysia.
North Korea had a series of missile launch tests this year, including the firing of a nuclear-capable missile over Japan for the first time since 2017. But for all the Hermit Kingdom’s bluster, the tests received about half as much attention as the nuclear brinkmanship that resulted in multiple summits between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and former President Donald Trump in 2018 and 2019.
The assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stands alone in Indo-Pacific stories in breaking through to a third of U.S. voters. But the tragic incident’s political ramifications did not break through in the United States, with just 8% of U.S. voters hearing a lot about a dominant performance by Abe’s party in subsequent legislative elections.
Saudi Arabia and Iran make biggest splash in Middle East and Africa
U.S. President Joe Biden’s fist bump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and their subsequent rift over oil prices were among the few stories from the region that received a significant amount of attention among U.S. voters.
Even nuclear stories that resonated so strongly in the Russia context found little audience, with just 7% and 11% of voters hearing a lot about talks to resume the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and Iran’s expansion of its nuclear enrichment program, respectively.
Protests against Iran’s regime, however, got much more attention, with about 21% of voters hearing a lot about the spread of protests in September and 18% about the crackdown by Iranian security forces in October.
But otherwise, global news had a very limited audience among U.S. voters in 2022. Removing stories that involve the United States or Europe, no story from Africa or Latin America broke through to more than 6% of voters.
