News media satellite up-link trucks and photojournalists gathered outside the Prudential Financial headquarters in Newark, New Jersey, in August 2004 following the announcement of evidence of a terrorist threat to it and to buildings in New York City.

Media circus is a colloquial metaphor, or idiom, describing a news event for which the level of media coverage—measured by such factors as the number of reporters at the scene and the amount of material broadcast or published—is perceived to be excessive or out of proportion to the event being covered. Coverage that is sensationalistic can add to the perception the event is the subject of a media circus. The term is meant to critique the coverage of the event by comparing it to the spectacle and pageantry of a circus. Usage of the term in this sense became common in the 1970s.^[1][2] It can also be called a media feeding frenzy or just media frenzy, especially when they cover the media coverage.

History

Tonya Harding arriving at Portland International Airport after the 1994 Winter Olympics

Although the idea is older, the term media circus began to appear around the mid-1970s. An early example is from the 1976 book by author Lynn Haney, in which she writes about a romance in which the athlete Chris Evert was involved: "Their courtship, after all, had been a 'media circus.'"^[3] A few years later The Washington Post had a similar courtship example in which it reported, "Princess Grace herself is still traumatized by the memory of her own media-circus wedding to Prince Rainier in 1956."^[4]

Media circuses make up the central plot device in the 1951 movie Ace in the Hole about a self-interested reporter who, covering a mine disaster, allows a man to die trapped underground. It cynically examines the relationship between the media and the news they report. The movie was subsequently re-issued as The Big Carnival, with "carnival" referring to what we now call a "circus". In the film, the disaster attracts campers including a real circus. The movie was based on real-life Floyd Collins who in 1925 was trapped in a Kentucky cave drawing so much media attention that it became the third largest media event between the two World Wars (the other two being Lindbergh's solo flight and the Lindbergh kidnapping).^[5]

Examples

Events described as a media circus include:

United States

Cameras and reporters in front of the Strauss-Kahn apartment on May 26, 2011

• The 1924 murder trials of Beulah Annan, Belva Gærtner, and several other female suspects in Chicago, adapted into the Chicago franchise by a newspaper reporter^[68]
• The 1932 kidnapping of toddler Charles Lindbergh Jr. Journalist H. L. Mencken described the incident as "the biggest story since the Resurrection".^[69]
• The early 1930s string of public enemies, ranging from mafia leaders such as Al Capone to smaller-time gangsters, most enduringly famously Bonnie and Clyde^[70]
• The 1954 trial of Sam Sheppard. The U.S. Supreme Court held "massive, pervasive, and prejudicial publicity" prevented him from receiving a fair trial^[71]
• The 1965 littering trial against singer Arlo Guthrie and Richard Robbins, deliberately turned into a local media circus by arresting officer William Obanhein to deter others from repeating their actions^[72]
• Coverage of the investigation and trial of the 1969 murders of Sharon Tate and four others by the Manson family^[73]
• David Gelman, Peter Greenberg, et al. in Newsweek on January 31, 1977: "Brooklyn born photographer and film producer Lawrence Schiller managed to make himself the sole journalist to witness the execution of Gary Gilmore in Utah....In the Gilmore affair, he was like a ringmaster in what became a media circus, with sophisticated newsmen scrambling for what he had to offer"^[74]
• The rescue of baby Jessica McClure (1987)^[75]
• The Central Park jogger case (1989)^[76]
• The O. J. Simpson murder case (1994–1995)^[53][54]
• The Blizzard of '96 (1996), "...this storm ...so hyped by the media in the same way that the O. J. Simpson murder case became hyped as the "Trial of the century"^[77]
• The Clinton–Lewinsky scandal (1998)^[78][79][80]
• The Elián González custody conflict (2000)^[81]
• The Summer of the Shark (2001)^[82][83][84]
• The trial of Scott Peterson for the murder of his wife Laci Peterson (2004), "The circus became even more raucous when Peterson went on trial for murder in 2004"^[85]
• The trial of Martha Stewart (2004), "The stone-faced Stewart never broke stride as she cut a path through the media circus"^[86]
• The disappearance of Stacy Peterson (2007)^[87]
• The alleged teenage "pregnancy pact" at Gloucester High School (2008)^[88]
• The Casey Anthony murder trial (2011), "Once again, it was relentless media coverage that in large part fed the fascination with the case", Ford observed^{[89][90][91][92]}
• The killing of Trayvon Martin (2012), "Here is where the media circus takes a decidedly ugly turn", Eric Deggans wrote^[93]
• The murder of Travis Alexander (2013), where Jodi Arias was found guilty of first-degree murder^{[94][95][96][97][98][99]}
• The Killing of Cecil the lion (2015)^[100]
• Opposition to and protests against the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh and the proceedings of his Confirmation Hearings (2018)^[101]
• The murder of George Floyd and the protests that followed (2020)^[102]
• The Killing of Gabby Petito (2021)^[103]
• The Casey White prison escape (2022)
• Will Smith slapping Chris Rock (2022)^[104][105]
• The Johnny Depp v Amber Heard trial (2022)^[106]
• The 2022 University of Idaho killings (2022)^[107]
• The various scandals surrounding George Santos (2022–2023)^[108][109]
• The trial of Alex Murdaugh (2023)^[110]
• Indictment of Donald Trump (2023)^[111]

See also

References