sensationalist

1840, "of or pertaining to sensation or the senses, implying perception through the senses;" 1863, in reference to a literary or artistic work, "aiming at violently excited effects, intended to excite violent emotions;" from sensation in its secondary sense. Related: Sensationalistic; sensationalistically.

word-forming element meaning "one who does or makes," also used to indicate adherence to a certain doctrine or custom, from French -iste and directly from Latin -ista (source also of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian -ista), from Greek agent-noun ending -istes, which is from -is-, ending of the stem of verbs in -izein, + agential suffix -tes.

Variant -ister (as in chorister, barrister) is from Old French -istre, on false analogy of ministre. Variant -ista is from Spanish, popularized in American English 1970s by names of Latin-American revolutionary movements.