Junk Food News
Junk Food News is a sarcastic term for news items that convey “sensationalism, personalized and homogenized inconsistent trivia ”, especially when such items are shown in place of serious reports researched by investigative journalism . It implies a criticism of the mass media for spreading such news that is not deep, but "cheap to produce and profitable for media entrepreneurs ."
Background and meaning
The term Junk Food News was first used by Carl Jensen in March 1983. As the founder of Project Censored , he had occasionally chalked the media for not delivering important news. In their response, Jensen said, journalists claimed that other posts were more important and exacerbated that claim with ad hominem comments directed against him.
“… News editors and editorial managers… argued that the real issue is not censorship ; rather a disagreement about what information is important for publication or broadcast. Editors often pointed out that there was a certain amount of time and space for the news program - about 23 minutes for a half-hour news program for TV night of networks - and their responsibility is to be determined, whether the reports of critical importance to the public. The critics said I hadn't discovered media censorship, instead I was just another frustrated academic criticizing the editorial news rating. "
In order to meet this argument with a fitting answer, Jensen decided to conduct a review to determine which contributions the media had considered more important. But instead of hardened investigative journalism, he discovered what he called junk food news , and is divided into manageable categories:
- Brand Name Messages ( Celebrity Gossip)
- Sex News (Exposure Stories And Sexual Arousal )
- Yo-yo news (statistics that change daily, such as the current stock market figures and box office results)
- Show business news (film premieres)
- "The Latest Fad" messages (short fads )
- Anniversary news (anniversaries of historical events or deceased celebrities)
- Sports News (Sports Rumors)
- Political News (biannual reports on the government's election promises )
As a counterpart to its annual list of the "Top 25 Censored Stories of the Year", Project Censored also publishes a list of the "Top 10 Junk Food News".
See also
literature
- Jörg-Uwe Nieland: Addiction factor junk food news . In: Hektor Haarkötter, Jörg-Uwe Nieland (Ed.): News and Enlightenment: Media and Journalism Criticism Today: 20 Years of Initiative News Enlightenment . 1st edition. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2018, ISBN 978-3-658-18098-0 , p. 115-129 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-658-18099-7_6 .
- Jörg-Uwe Nieland, Matthias Bianchi: "Junk Food News" and "News Abuse" - more challenges for news enlightment . In: Peter Ludes (Ed.): Algorithms of Power - Key Invisibles . Lit-Verlag, Münster / Hamburg / Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-658-18098-0 , pp. 207-211 .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c d e Carl Jensen: Junk Food News 1877–2000 . In: Peter Phillips and Project Censored (Eds.): Censored 2001: Featuring 25 Years of Censored News and the Top Censored Stories of the Year . Seven Stories Press, 2001, ISBN 978-1-58322-064-1 , pp. 251-264 ( Junk Food News 1877-2000 ( December 14, 2001 memento on the Internet Archive )).
- ^ Mickey Huff, Frances A. Capell: Infotainment Society: Junk Food News and News Abuse for 2008/2009 . In: Peter Phillips, Mickey Huff and Project Censored (Eds.): Censored 2010: The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2008-09 . Seven Stories Press, 2010, ISBN 978-1-58322-890-6 , pp. 147-174 ( projectcensored.org [PDF]).