Written by Ruben Saucedo (California Maritime Academy)

Edited by Aimee Casey (Diablo Valley College)

Faculty Advisor: Nolan Higdon (California State University, East Bay)

News media articles can demonstrate very important events. However, some articles are shown to take away the spot light of the more important issues that arise. In 2016, the corporate media covered the junk food news story “Kim Kardashian’s Terrifying Robbery” while the independent media covered “For The First Time Ever, Bees Added To The Endangered Species List.” The junk food news story “Kim Kardashian robbery” is non-newsworthy because it does not impact anyone in America other than her. However, bees on the endangered species list can greatly impact the human race.

In 2016, the corporate media covered the junk food news story “Kim Kardashian’s Terrifying Robbery.” The story was shared on the internet and social media at the expense of more important stories. While in town for Paris Fashion Week, Kardashian was held at gunpoint and robbed in her hotel room. Entertainer Kanye West, her husband, ended his concert early when he heard about the incident, causing the anger among his fans. Supposedly, the robbery was conducted by a “highly organized” gang. The corporate media dedicated massive amounts of coverage to the junk food news story “Kim Kardashian robbery.” In addition to social media, the story was covered a lot by big corporate news studios such as NBC, CNN, and Fox News.

In ­­­2016, while the corporate media covered the junk food news story “Kim Kardashian robbery,” the independent outlet The Free Thought Project covered “For The First Time Ever, Bees Added To The Endangered Species List.” On October 4, 2016, Justine Gardner writing for The Free Thought Project published “For The First Time Ever, Bees Added To The Endangered Species List.” Gardner’s article focused on the topic of the human race being impacted by the endangerment of the bees. The titles of both articles illustrate the big difference in importance between the robbery article and the bee article.

The topic of bees entering the endangered species list and the impact on the human race is newsworthy because bees are essential for human survival. Bees are critically important to the pollination of many flowering plants. Over millions of years, the bees and certain flowers have evolved specialized plant-pollinator interactions where both the bees and the flowers have benefits. If the bees disappear, certain flowering plants can disappear as well. If these plants disappear, there will be a domino effect in the ecosystem in which other organisms that depend on those plants will also disappear. The trend will continue until affecting the human race as well.

The corporate media has covered countless of news stories just like “Kim Kardashian robbery” and taken away from the main issues that the world is facing like the bee extinction. These news articles are called the junk story news. These junk news stories act as decoys to distract the public from what really is going on in the world. This is a big issue because the people are not being informed about these issues correctly and in a timely fashion.

Ruben Saucedo is originally from Southern California. He is studying mechanical engineering at the California Maritime Academy in Vallejo, California.

Nolan Higdon is a professor of Critical Media Literacy Education and Latin American and US History in the San Francisco Bay Area. His academic work focuses on nationalism, propaganda, and critical media literacy education. He sits on the boards of the Media Freedom Foundation, Sacred Heart University’s Media Literacy and Digital Culture Graduate Program, and the Northwest Alliance For Alternative Media And Education. He co-founded the Global Critical Media Literacy Project where he served two years as coordinator. He has contributed chapters to Censored 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, & 2017 as well as Stephen Lendman’s Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III (2014). He has published articles on media and propaganda including “Disinfo Wars: Alex Jones War on Your Mind (2013),” “Millennial Media Revolution (2014),” and “Justice For Sale (2015).” He has been a guest on national radio and television programs and a frequent guest host for The Project Censored Radio Show.