Major news events attract hundreds of media professionals, resulting in a chaotic scene known as a media circus. The drive for exclusivity and original content can transform an ordinary news event into a media frenzy. Media professionals often stay in local lodgings and ingratiate themselves into local society. The media circus generally goes away once the story is over.
Big news events never happen in a vacuum, which means that when a story of national or international interests breaks down, an actual courthouse, hospital, newsroom or small town could soon be inundated with hundreds of members of the media. TV crews will set up satellite links for live broadcasts, print journalists will vie for position at press conferences, and photojournalists will compete for the best shots. In short, media coverage of a major news event such as a celebrity’s day in court or a politician’s resignation will become a story in itself, often called a media frenzy or a media circus.
A media circus doesn’t contain a single elephant act or ringmaster, but it has all the frenetic energy of a real circus. Major news organizations like CBS or CNN can assign seasoned professionals with state-of-the-art remote broadcast facilities to cover a breaking story, but these reporters often find themselves surrounded by hundreds of others who are all interested in the same event. of news. The result can be a chaotic scene filled with dozens of satellite trucks, mobile assembly stations, fixed cameras, microphones and police barricades. When local, national and international media converge in a small area, the result is often a media circus.
When an event like a celebrity’s trial begins, the media hype can largely be maintained by freelance journalists or low-level photographers known as paparazzi. However, once the process reaches a certain level of public interest, competing news organizations can send reporters to get exclusive interviews or be the first to report on new developments. It is this drive for exclusivity and original content that can transform an ordinary news event into a media circus. Media coverage of the 1995 OJ Simpson murder trial would be an example of a media circus, as hundreds of reporters and photographers literally camped out for weeks to get exclusive footage of witnesses walking in and out of the courthouse.
It is not uncommon for a media circus to become a temporary part of the local landscape. Media professionals often stay in hotels or other local lodgings, eat at local restaurants, interview local residents for side reports, and otherwise ingratiate themselves into local society. A media circus can swing between the frenetic energy of a breakup story and the significantly less dramatic downtime between press conferences and big interviews. When the story is over, however, the phenomenon known as the media circus generally goes away.
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