Hypesteria
Media overreaction to public overreaction to event experienced by many but understood by few, resulting in breathless reports containing little-to-no actual information, dubious eyewitness accounts, officials making pronouncements even dumber than usual and, ultimately, the disproportionate news coverage of public anxiety overshadowing the event itself and often the only thing about it anyone remembers.
Ex: Drones over New Jersey; any shark siting since 1975, Orson Welles' "War of the World's" broadcast, the sinking of the Maine in Havana.
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