The "mass" reactions described are, I suppose, a corollary of Andy Warhol's famous 15 minutes.
Digressing slightly, what I see as excruciatingly bad taste is the media microphone: "how does it feel to know that your ............... has been ................ ?
Does nobody say "sod off!" Or are they edited out?
And when it is a bereaved couple, why is it almost always the wife who answers, while the poor lumpen sod sits there in glum silence?
And why do all replies begin with "Well" or even "Wuh" ?
Just asking.