I would like to propose a new term: outrage dividend.
Outrage dividend is the boost in reach that content which elicits strong emotional responses often gets on social media and other content sharing platforms.
This boost can be related to human nature — an outrage-inducing article will get shared more. It can also be caused by the particular set-up of the platform a given piece of content is shared on — Facebook’s post-promoting algorithm was designed to be heavily biased to promote posts that get the “angry” reaction.
A tale of two media outlets
Imagine two media organizations.
A Herald is a reliable media organization, with great fact-checking, in-depth reporting, and so on. Their articles are nuanced, well-argued, and usually stay away from sensationalism and clickbaity titles.