Junk food news refers to news stories that sensationalize, personalize or homogenize relatively inconsequential trivia in the mass media. It is a sardonic phrase which has the same meaning as journalistic noise. Typically, "junk food news" can be said to fall into one or more of these categories: Mass media is the term used to denote, as a class, that section of the media specifically conceived and designed to reach a very large audience (typically at least as large as the whole population of a nation state). ... In general usage, noise can be considered data without meaning; that is, data that is not being used to transmit a signal, but is simply produced as an unwanted by-product of other activities. ...

• Brand name news (Stories about brand-name products, such as "New Coke")
• Sexual titillation (Celebrity pregnancies, unusual sexual affairs and crimes)
• 'Yo-yo news' (statistics that change daily, such as stock market numbers and movie box office totals)
• Showbusiness news (box office opening news)
• Latest craze news (Brief fads such as Furby, Pokémon, Segway)
• Celebrity news (Celebrity gossip)
• Anniversary news (Anniversary of a major event or celebrity death)
• Sports news (sports rumours and gossip)
• Political junk news

The term "junk food news" suggests an unflattering similarity in quality of some stories selected by news editors and junk food (poor quality food stuffs). It was first used in print by Carl Jensen in the March 1983 edition of Penthouse. The term evolved from response to criticism of Project Censored by news directors and editors who argued that the real issue wasn't censorship - rather a difference of opinion as to what information is important to publish or broadcast. Some critics tried to bolster this view with ad hominem comments about Carl Jensen. They said that he wasn't exploring media censorship, rather he was just another frustrated academic criticizing editorial news judgement. This article is about Furby, the plush toy. ... Pokémon (Japanese: ポケモン Pokemon, pronounced Poh-Kay-Mon) is a video game franchise, created by Satoshi Tajiri and published by Nintendo for several of their systems, most importantly the Game Boy. ... Inventor Dean Kamen demonstrates the Segway HT at the U.S. Department of Commerce on February 14, 2002. ... Junk food is a derogatory term, used for any food that is perceived to be unhealthy and has low or poor nutritional value. ... 1983 is an integer and composite number that represents a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In architecture, a penthouse is a building on the roof of another building, or alternatively, an apartment on the top floor of a building. ... Project Censored is a nonprofit, sociological project of an investigative nature within the Sonoma State University Foundation. ... Censorship is the systematic use of group power to broadly control freedom of speech and expression, largely in regard to secretive matters. ... An ad hominem argument, also known as argumentum ad hominem (Latin, literally argument to the man), is a logical fallacy that involves replying to an argument or assertion by addressing the person presenting the argument or assertion rather than the argument itself or an argument pointing out an inconsistency between...

See also: tabloid, yellow journalism, sensationalism A tabloid is a newspaper — especially in the United Kingdom — that uses the tabloid format, which is roughly 23½ by 14¾ inches (597 by 375 mm) per spread. ... Yellow journalism is a term given to any widespread tendencies or practices within media organizations which are detrimental to, or substandard from the point of view of, journalistic integrity. ... Sensationalism is a manner of being extremely controversial, loud, attention-grabbing, or otherwise sensationalistic. ...

External links

• Project Censored (http://www.projectcensored.org)
• Junk Food News (http://www.projectcensored.org/newsabuse.htm)