An Analysis of Media Coverage of The Johnny Depp Defamation Trials
Abstract
Since the inception of the media, they have tried to report on and cover information that we deem to be either interesting or important to our lives. Unfortunately, we often place too much emphasis on simply whether or not something is interesting, rather than whether it is important. Celebrity gossip is a fine example of this. It does not affect our lives in any real way to know the daily lives of celebrities, and yet people continuously hunger to know more about them. Time and time again we’ve heard stories about how celebrities' lives have been changed by the constant swarming of paparazzi, but what about the change that occurs when the media decides to poke their nose in the business of celebrities when they’re in court? Famous celebrity trials such as that of Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard raise serious questions about whether heavy media presence in a courtroom could possibly sway the decisions of a jury. It is also important to consider what media outlets are reporting on these cases, and discovering what role, if any, various types of media may have made in the jury’s verdict. In this paper, you will read an analysis of the media coverage of high-profile public jury trials, with an emphasis on the trials of Depp v News Group Newspapers Ltd and Depp v Heard. You will be provided with an overview of how the media has historically interacted with the justice system, as well as a comprehensive analysis of the legal differences between the two cases. Finally, this research will demonstrate correlations between how conservative and liberal news organizations covered the trials differently, as well as explore the differing coverage between the two trials of the Depp saga.
Subject
DefamationMedia
Media interference
Media Coverage
Celebrity trials
British law
American law
Citation
Baughman, Noah B (2024). An Analysis of Media Coverage of The Johnny Depp Defamation Trials. Undergraduate Research Scholars Program. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /200273.