Latest news: Kim Kardashian has worn her hair in a knot bun for the past two days. Honorable mention: Dumping of nutrients into water sources have decreased dissolved oxygen content and has suffocated fish populations.

2 weeks later… BREAKING NEWS: Millions of fish dead on the East Coast, causes not yet determined.

In our post-industrial society, entertainment has risen as a primary attention grabber. As television has revolutionized for gossip talk shows, reality tv, and entertainment news channels, and social media has evolved into a primary news source for citizens, citizens focus a lot on what’s happening socially rather than economically or ecologically. Because of this, our Earth suffers.

According to research from the nonprofit organization, Project for Improved Environmental Coverage (PIEC), only 1.2% of headlines are regarding the environment over the course of 30 national news networks. The other 98.8% is often given to entertainment and crime. For example, the Kardashians have been featured on news headlines 2,133 times whereas ocean acidification has only been covered 45 times.

The only outlets that have more environmental coverage are local newspaper outlets. Their coverage of the environment is 2.5x more than national news. On the downside, it is known that the attention towards local newspapers, newspapers in general, have decreased over the years. Our news sources, especially amongst the youth, have transitioned to television and the internet. According to the Pew Research Center, 57% of Americans receive news from television, and 38% of Americans receive news online whereas 20% receive information from newspapers, 65% of those newspaper readers being 65 years old or older. Out of the younger people of our nation, only 5% of the youth read newspapers. So, majority of our youth is still consumed by the entertainment and crime that national news sources consistently provide.

So does this really affect people? Are the numbers just numbers to us? Does it ever hit home?

Well, the most prevalent news source that students and teachers around our school use is the internet. Allison Cantrell, a senior, says she uses “Certain social media pages, like Facebook and Twitter” to see her daily news. Similar to Dr. Wilson who says “Online , I usually read different articles to compare stories.”

Previously stated before, it is known that a high majority of news coverage goes to entertainment and crime. News coverage tends to favor local acts of crime, celebrity drama, and national news/political drama. Another senior, Andrew Miller, says that he mostly sees entertainment. Wilson, says, “I usually see politics. Overall, I’ll see politics, negative entertainment, and crime.”

As we reached the bread and butter of the interview, the responses were shocking. The amount of environmental information seen is limited and one interviewee said that the only environmental information that they see is fueled by political agenda. And this lack of environmental coverage in the media has created a sense of immunity to the detriment that is going on in our world.

Miller says, “It never brings it to the forefront of my mind,”” and Cantrell says, “It makes me feel that news outlets don’t care about it enough to report on it.”  Bingo.

Why is it that the news covers entertainment and crime, 98.8% of the time? Ratings. Kim Kardashian over the ecological decline over the world? Ratings. News outlets are more concerned in remaining a relevant source for citizens rather than preserving the true purpose of the news and properly informing us, and this is not completely their fault. In order to stay relevant, the news has to focus on what we care about. They can’t force the Kardashians or the Duggars or Kanye West in our face if we weren’t feigning to see it constantly.

So what are our priorities? Let’s question ourselves and consider why we value entertainment and crime over the health state of our environment. We need to take the time to readjust what really matters because after all the environment’s health is a direct statement of the health of humanity. Without nature, there is no us.