Media frenzy

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Describing the behaviour of the mass media when given a particularly controversial item of news. The information content of the story is usually of secondary importance to the amount of publicity that it can generate, which of course leads to increased sales and profits for the media outlets concerned. Whether the story is reported for the sake of public interest, or the public interest is manufactured for the sake of sales or political reasons, is often the cause of much speculation.

The use of the word frenzy is an allusion to the feeding frenzy of sharks and other predatory animals.