How the riots dominated the public’s news attention

With the nationwide riots having subsided, and a stream of initial convictions already coming through, a retrospective look at data from YouGov’s AI-powered news tracker shows how the unrest captured the public’s attention more than any other topic.

The unrest was initially sparked by the tragic murder of three young girls in Southport on 29 July. On that day, the public’s attention had been focused on the Olympics, with 30% of Britons reporting it as the story they had heard about most over the past few days. In contrast, only 14% said they had primarily heard about the Southport incident.

By the end of the week, however, news attention given to the Southport stabbings surged, with 58% of Britons now citing it as the most noticed news story, pushing the Olympics, which was still in full swing, into second place with just 13%. At this point, stories about the social unrest were beginning to gain traction, with 9% of Britons citing riot-related stories as the top story they had heard about, the third highest that day.

The following week marked a significant shift in public focus as the riots across the UK became the dominant news story. By then, over two-thirds (68%) of Britons reported that the riots were the story they had heard about most, while 15% recalled the original story of the Southport stabbings, bringing the total to 83% of people focused on these two stories.

At its peak – on our survey of 7 August – the riots were reported as front-of-mind by close to eight in ten people (79%). The topic overshadowed nearly all others, with 7% saying they had heard most about the Southport stabbings, and just 4% primarily hearing about the Olympics and 2% about the government’s economic announcements.

The riots continued to dominate the public's attention into the next week, with 48% of respondents still identifying it as their top news story on 12 August. However, by the following day, this had decreased to 39%. With the rioting effectively over by this point, other stories began to regain some ground, as knife violence in other parts of the UK, the Olympics, and the war in Ukraine began to resurface in the public’s focus of attention.

Two weeks after the unrest, in our latest polling, the number of Britons citing the riots as their most prominent news story has now dropped to 5%, although this is still the second most-heard story. An additional 2% cited news of the first convictions being handed out to rioters as their top story, and the initial Southport stabbings are still top of mind for 3%.

However, the sinking of the superyacht off the coast of Sicily overshadows both stories by far, capturing almost half of the public’s primary attention (47%).

What do you think about the news coverage of the riots, the media landscape in the UK in general, and everything else? Have your say, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.