Media hypes and public opinion: Human interest frames and hype fatigue

The study of media hypes has largely been concerned with the study of news content and news work, understood as the sociology of news organizations and news workers. From this literature, we already have important knowledge of what characterizes media hypes (see Vasterman, 2005; Elmelund-Præstekær & Wien, 2008; Wien & Elmelund-Præstekær, 2009): Media hypes tend to materialize suddenly as news waves triggered by some key event (Vasterman, 2005, 515-516). Further, some form of ‘interaction between the media and social actors’ characterizes media hypes according to Vasterman (Ibid.), meaning that this interaction itself becomes part of the hype, and thus receive