In media, sensationalism is the technique of capturing the minds of audiences through controversy, excitement, and drama. Its modern form is ever pervasive, with phrases like 'trash TV' and 'rage bait' emerging to colloquially describe it. How can you identify it? If the content is outrageous.
Now, before society arrived at the ubiquitous, turbocharged form of sensationalism distributed by the internet which most people are familiar with today, there were slower formats: print media, the news, and The Jerry Springer Show from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
This proto-trash TV was captivating; in 1998, it had risen to the number one daytime show, notably overtaking a more sensible production, The Oprah Winfrey Show. Jerry Springer's vise grip on audiences was only getting tighter. It was in this year, when a young Chris Morris went toe-to-toe with the king of outrageousness and interviewed him for his left-field BBC Radio 1 show, Blue Jam [1].
The result was a quick-fire, five-minute exchange of witty remarks from both, a raunchy joke from Springer, ridiculous questions and some made-up words and medical conditions from Morris whose background in Zoology lent itself to such inventions, and some genuinely good analysis from Morris regarding Springer's approach to freely moving between the live audience and stage in his show, all scored by Morcheeba's Bullet Proof, a head-nodding, pacy, trip-hop anthem.
Springer, being a learned lawyer, former RFK campaign aide, Cincinnati mayor, and, well, the host of The Jerry Springer Show, was unbothered by Morris and kept his cool. After all, “somebody said outrageous is as outrageous does, and when it does it doesn't when it gets to the end.”