If you're wondering how articles like
"Woman smears menstrual blood on face to show periods are beautiful and powerful" are motivated and end up getting amplified, look no further than The Toxoplasma Of Rage (Slate Star Codex)
http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/the-toxoplasma-of-rage/
...
"So there’s a tradeoff here, with X on one side and Y on the other.
X can get everyone to agree in principle that Q is bad, but no one will pay any attention to it.
And Y can get everyone to pay attention to Q, but a lot of people who would otherwise oppose it will switch to supporting it just because they’re so mad at the way it’s being publicized.
At least Y got them to pay attention! They’re traveling up an incentive gradient that rewards them for doing so, even if it destroys their credibility."
...
"People talk about the shift from old print-based journalism to the new world of social media and the sites adapted to serve it. These are fast, responsive, and only just beginning to discover the power of controversy. They are memetic evolution shot into hyperdrive, and the omega point is a well-tuned machine optimized to search the world for the most controversial and counterproductive issues, then make sure no one can talk about anything else. An engine that creates money by burning the few remaining shreds of cooperation, bipartisanship and social trust."