Media circus is a colloquial metaphor, or idiom, describing a news event where 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. It can also be called a media feeding frenzy or just media frenzy, especially when they cover the media coverage.
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.'" 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." The term has become increasingly popular with time since the 1970s.
Reasons for being critical of the media are as varied as the people who use the term. However, at the core of most criticism is that there may be a significant opportunity cost when other more important news issues get less public attention as a result of coverage of the hyped issue.
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". 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).
Events described as a media circus include:
The disappearance, and assumed death, of Natalee Holloway (2005–).
The Azaria Chamberlain disappearance of 2-month-old baby in outback Australia (1980).
The Beaconsfield Mine collapse (2006).
2009 Violence against Indians in Australia controversy.
Schapelle Corby Drug smuggler (2014).
The murder of Isabella Nardoni (2008).
Conrad Black, business magnate of newspapers, convicted of fraud, embezzlement and corporate destruction, imprisoned in Florida.
Toronto mayor Rob Ford's life, including his usage of drugs, alcohol and involvement with organized crime (2013).
Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka (serial killers)
Omar Khadr (detained as a minor at Guantanamo Bay in 2001, transferred to Canada in 2012, released in May 2015.)
Murder of Victoria Stafford, (8-year-old girl murdered for unclear reasons by a couple who have unclear relations to each other and the victim.)
Jian Ghomeshi, (CBC employee alleged to have committed more than a dozen sex assaults over more than a decade.)
Luka Rocco Magnotta, gay porn actor convicted of killing Chinese roommate and mailing remains to the Prime Minister and an elementary school in British Columbia.
Elijah Marsh, a 3-year-old Toronto boy of black descent who wandered outside in February 2015 in just a diaper, shirt and boots and froze to death.
2010 Copiapó mining accident.
The Death of Luis Andres Colmenares (2010).
Amanda Knox (convicted of the murder of Meredith Kercher; her conviction was subsequently overturned).
The missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (2014).
Joran van der Sloot and the death of Stephany Flores Ramirez (2010).
Disappearance and alleged murder of Elodia Ghinescu, especially on OTV, which aired a couple hundred episodes on the matter.
Oscar Pistorius on trial for death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp (2013–14).
Mykola Melnychenko's involvement in the Cassette Scandal (1999–2000)
The life, death and funeral of Jade Goody (2009).
The News International phone hacking scandal (2011). Often overshadowed stories on the Libyan/Syrian civil wars, east-African famine, and economic crisis.
The abduction of Madeleine McCann (2008).
The McLibel case
Christine Jorgensen caused a media sensation when she returned from Denmark to The U.S in 1952 after undergoing the "world's first sex change" operation. "Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Bombshell" was the headline in the New York Daily News December 1, 1952.
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."
The Central Park jogger case of 1989.
The O. J. Simpson murder case of 1994-1995.
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."
The Elián González custody conflict (2000)
The trial of Martha Stewart (2004). "The stone-faced Stewart never broke stride as she cut a path through the media circus."
The 2005 Trial of Michael Jackson on child molestation charges and his 2009 death
The disappearance of Stacy Peterson (2007).
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.
The Shooting of Trayvon Martin (2012). "Here is where the media circus takes a decidedly ugly turn", Eric Deggans wrote ...
The Murder of Travis Alexander (2013), where Jodi Arias was found guilty of first-degree murder.
Dismissal of and racial remarks by former owner of Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, Donald Sterling (2014).
