Journalists For Space

Where are our priorities at?

By  Jonathan Stroud
JournalistsForSpace.com

A quick Google Trends comparison of the terms “Kardashian” and “NASA” will tell a visual story of the most googled terms…

During college when someone would ask me what I wanted to do for work, I would half-jokingly respond that I wanted to help get people more interested in space and less so much in Kim Kardashian. While semi-serious the visual representation from the Google Trends chart,  it acts as a visual representation of people’s most searched terms leaving an extremely low search rate for NASA.

Why is this?

Well, the closing of the space shuttle program could be a component of lack of popularity in the news coverage/events that the agency receives from media outlets. Although, unmanned missions to Mars and other satellite missions still create news coverage, there is just something about the risk of human life the peaks interests. The possible loss of a life over the destruction of mechanical parts is a reality that brings with it one of the many dangerous risks that space travel offers.

The unmanned rovers and satellite news that is predominantly from the space agency nowadays doesn’t hold up to the habitual controversy Kim Kardashian creates when attending a dinner party.

I can honestly say that I am baffled by popular culture’s promotion and acceptance of shallow self-indulgent public figures that would rather steal attention to enlighten individuals to fashion trends than new scientific discoveries. To ease the pretentious tone of the observation, I would like to take the time to explain I do not have any personal vendettas against or hatred towards the the Kardashian family. I am just perplexed to the high level of interest shown by Google Trends which raises the question of importance of new human discoveries in the news.

Why do you think people are drawn to reality television stars over the hydrogen and helium stars in the Universe?

*Featured photo credit: Google Trends

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