It was less frequent and was normally more personal. You might be outraged by something you or someone you knew directly experienced. Occasionally something outrageous would make it into the local paper or news and everyone in your area could be mad about that together, and once every few generations youd have something like Pearl Harbor or 9/11 that made the whole country lose their minds. Celebrity gossip rags were the closest thing to the modern grind of everyone reacting to the latest crazy thing the stupidest person Washington said today, and those wernt taken very seriously by most people.