The doctrine held by Condillac, and by some ascribed to Locke, that our ideas originate solely in sensation, and consist of sensations transformed; sensualism; -- opposed to intuitionalism, and rationalism. [1913 Webster]
The practice or methods of sensational writing or speaking; as, the sensationalism of a novel. [1913 Webster]

top

OXFORD DICTIONARY

sensationalism, n.
1 the use of or interest in the sensational in literature, political agitation, etc.
2 Philos. the theory that ideas are derived solely from sensation (opp. RATIONALISM).

Derivative

sensationalist n. & adj. sensationalistic adj.

top

THESAURUS

sensationalism

Barnumism, Thespian art, affectation, aggrandizement, amateur theatricals, amplification, ballyhoo, bedizenment, big talk, blatancy, blood and thunder, blowing up, brazenness, burlesque, caricature, colorfulness, convolution, crudeness, dash, dazzle, dazzlingness, demonstrativeness, dilatation, dilation, dramatic art, dramatic form, dramatic irony, dramatic stroke, dramatic structure, dramaticism, dramatics, dramatism, dramaturgy, emotional appeal, emotionalism, emotionality, emotionalization, emotionalizing, emotiveness, emotivity, enhancement, enlargement, exaggerating, exaggeration, excess, exorbitance, expansion, extravagance, extravaganza, extravagation, extreme, flagrancy, flamboyance, flashiness, flatulence, flatulency, fulsomeness, gaiety, garishness, gaudery, gaudiness, glare, glitter, gorgeousness, grandiloquence, grandioseness, grandiosity, heightening, high-flown diction, histrionics, histrionism, huckstering, human interest, hyperbole, hyperbolism, inflatedness, inflation, inordinacy, jauntiness, jazziness, lexiphanicism, loftiness, loudness, love interest, luridness, magnification, magniloquence, making scenes, melodrama, melodramatics, mere rhetoric, meretriciousness, nonrationalness, obtrusiveness, orotundity, ostentation, ostentatious complexity, overemphasis, overestimation, overkill, overstatement, panache, platitudinous ponderosity, play construction, polysyllabic profundity, pomposity, pompous prolixity, pompousness, pontification, pretension, pretentiousness, prodigality, profuseness, prose run mad, puffery, puffing up, rhetoric, rhetoricalness, sententiousness, shamelessness, showiness, sportiness, staginess, stiltedness, stretching, superlative, swelling utterance, swollen phrase, swollenness, tall talk, tawdriness, theatricalism, theatricality, theatricals, theatricism, theatrics, tortuosity, tortuousness, touting, travesty, tumidity, tumidness, turgescence, turgidity, unreasoningness, visceralness, vulgarness, yellow journalism

top

ROGET THESAURUS

sensationalism

Excitation

N excitation of feeling, mental excitement, suscitation, galvanism, stimulation, piquance, piquancy, provocation, inspiration, calling forth, infection, animation, agitation, perturbation, subjugation, fascination, intoxication, enravishment, entrancement, pressure, tension, high pressure, unction, impressiveness, trail of temper, casus belli, irritation, passion, thrill, repression of feeling, sensationalism, yellow journalism, excited, wrought up, up the qui vive, astir, sparkling, in a quiver, in a fever, in a ferment, in a blaze, in a state of excitement, in hysterics, black in the face, overwrought, tense, taught, on a razor's edge, hot, red-hot, flushed, feverish, all of a twitter, in a pucker, with quivering lips, with tears in one's eyes, flaming, boiling over, ebullient, seething, foaming at the mouth, fuming, raging, carried away by passion, wild, raving, frantic, mad, distracted, beside oneself, out of one's wits, ready to burst, bouleverse, demoniacal, lost, eperdu, tempest-tossed, haggard, ready to sink, stung to the quick, up, on one's high ropes, exciting, absorbing, riveting, distracting, impressive, warm, glowing, fervid, swelling, imposing, spirit-stirring, thrilling, high-wrought, soul-stirring, soul-subduing, heart-stirring, heart- swelling, heart-thrilling, agonizing, telling, sensational, hysterical, overpowering, overwhelming, more than flesh and blood can bear, yellow, piquant, spicy, appetizing, provocative, provoquant, tantalizing, eager to go, anxious to go, chafing at the bit, till one is black in the face, the heart beating high, the heart going pitapat, the heart leaping into one's mouth, the blood being up, the blood boiling in one's veins, the eye glistening, the eyes in a fine frenzy rolling, the head turned, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

For further exploring for "sensationalism" in Webster Dictionary Online