Consumer Search, News Media and Social Media Issues Assessment Analysis | Brunswick Group
Perspectives

Consumer Search, News Media and Social Media Issues Assessment Analysis

We analyzed a set of critical issues and ranked interest and engagement in the context of search, recent media coverage, and social media engagement in the District of Columbia. Our analysis focused on understanding how issues evolved over a 30-day period in June 2021.

Why we started Searching 202

In order to contextualize current key issues and how audiences are interacting, sharing, and searching for these issues, the team created “Searching 202.” The output
segments Washington D.C., issues-based data to understand overall search interest, news volume, and social media engagement on articles originating from the district.

  1. Search trends help us to understand audience interest and intention

  2. News coverage allows us to understand the media narrative

  3. Social media engagement sheds light on what drives audience engagement

Together, the triangulation of these three digital data elements delivers unparalleled insight into how issues are evolving in D.C.

How to use this output?

The output is not meant to be predictive, but directional in what key issues are gaining momentum during any given month. This output will be updated monthly to further trend issue uptake over time and analyze additional issues as they arise.

What did we investigate?

Issues were analyzed to:

  • Understand relative rank within the set of our custom issues list
  • To discover how the issues have evolved over time as a standalone topic

Key findings from the report:

1. Placing messaging on climate change in news stories is more likely to gain traction in D.C. than optimizing search. People are still clicking on climate change new stories in D.C., but fewer are searching for additional information.

2. Search is being used in D.C. to gather information about legislative bills and executive plans even in the absence of media coverage.

3. Cybersecurity is now increasingly connected to critical infrastructure in D.C. like the supply chain rather than localized breaches and data theft.

4. D.C. searches for semiconductors are focused on solutions to shortages.

5. SPAC searches in D.C. have evolved from defining a SPAC to gathering financial information about it.

Issues across search, traditional media, and social media engagement*

What data sources did we use?

A multi-source approach was used to ensure topic landscape was accurately visualized. Google Trends and Newswhip were utilized to source search interest trends, online news coverage volume, and social interaction data with online news.

Data reported is Washington D.C.-based for June 2021, with some broader United States search trends included at times for greater context.

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