Abstract

This article comments on the contemporary manifestations and implications of mass media hype in the Internet age, with a particular application to conditions of post-industrial journalism. Newsworthy events can take on the characteristics of a ‘long-tail’ with a global distribution. Such a ‘long-tail’ of media hyper-activity can occlude ‘secondary effects’ including aporias in representation and media presence online. An example is discussed from Internet news representation of North Korean militarisation.In this context, concepts of censorship, cultivation and pseudo-event remain as relevant as ever, despite – and perhaps even more so because of the proliferation of available information in post-industrial journalism. While the article affirms that there are advantages in the digitalisation of journalism in the post-industrial era, issues of gate-keeping can be seen to be compromised in aspects of content dissemination, audience interpretation and media availability.