“He said she’s a bisexual gold-digger”: biphobia and epistemic injustice in news coverage of the Depp v. Heard divorce and defamation trial
Margaret E. Foster · Feminist Media Studies · 2024
The 2022 defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard invites examination of how news media changed their coverage of abuse allegations since the couple’s 2016 divorce and the #MeToo movement’s 2017 globalization. Using critical discourse analysis, I found that fewer 2022 articles referenced Heard’s bisexuality compared to their 2016 divorce coverage, and 2022 articles evoked fewer biphobic stereotypes. However, outlets generally did not connect Heard’s (or Depp’s) prior arrest with current allegations of violence. Furthermore, Heard lost the trial amid social media vitriol, thereby questioning news media’s position in a newly digital “economy of believability”.