I just asked three people near me if they knew who Snowden and Cyrus were. Guess who was recognized by all three and who was vaguely acknowledged by 1.

Not a scientific study, but I'd put money on it being repeatable outside the workplaces of hacker news readers.

Is that an honest question?

You realise that almost no-one gives a fuck about Snowden, right? Most people really just don't care.

The Guardian newspaper has (if we're generous) a circulation of 250,000 people.

The (untrustworthy) numbers of the MileyCyrusVEVO "Wrecking Ball" video are 352,117,848 views.