Michael Jackson’s: How His Death Ruled the Web.

For the past few days the only thing anyone seems to talk about is the passing of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, seemingly the most important topic of discussion on TwitterTwitter, FacebookFacebook, and CNN. But how did the news of his death spread? How did speculation become fact over the course of a few minutes throughout the social networks?

Who reported first?

To begin with, i think its particularly interesting to note that his death ratified the fact that social media is quickly building itself up as a news source. Remembering of course the US Airways plane that was forced to land in the Hudson River some months ago and more recently the out pour of multimedia sent through Twitter, YoutubeYouTube and other social networking sites during the massive blockade of journalisim and communications after the Iranian election.

However Michael Jacksonmichael jackson reviews out shined them all, logistically speaking.

Below I’ve included the way speculation of his death spread through a series of linked social networks traveling throughout the internet from network to network until eventually reaching your ears and the mainstream news stations as well.

1. The Celebrity Gossip site TMZ publishes a blog post at 4:30 PM EST stating that Michael Jackson had been transported to the hospital via ambulance due to a cardiac complication.
2. Twitter users who read TMZ start circulating the story, from there it spreads to Facebook and several other blogs.  Speculation and mass circulation begins.
3. At exactly 5:02 PM EST TMZ updates that Michael Jackson had passed away.
4. The story becomes the focus of every social networking site, and blog in the world. Servers from Twitter, Facebook, and Google nearly crash from the overload.

Curiously enough none of the major news channels like BBC and CNN informed the public of his death until well after 7 PM. They had however given vague details about the possibility of Mr. Jackson being comatose, which wasn’t received until after 5:30, which had you noticed TMZ had already confirmed his death 28 minutes before. Once again we see citizens’ journalism beat out the major broadcasting networks with a simple tweet.

However, this type of journalism has yet to evolve and strengthen to become more reliable. While on Twitter the news story of the moment was the passing of Michael Jackson, there were also rumors about the supposed death of actors Jeff Goldblum and Harrison Ford, which goes without saying are not true.

The analytic data impact that the Michael Jackson news story generated throughout internet media: According to the company of logistic and analytical inter studies Compete, on the day of his death the words Michael and Jackson where searched more than 9,981,000 times.

And even more shocking was the user participation on the official Michael Jackson site displaying more than 423,000 messages from fans all around the world from the time of his death to the moment this post was being posted.  Indicating about 10 posts per minute, some with a few brief words and others extended to lengthy paragraphs.

More importantly than deep analytical research in this particular case it’s important to mention the participation of the users who left commentary on the digital wall for the late musician and entertainer,  messages whose number relied on nothing more than the need of fans to express themselves.

Proving once again the vanguard nature of Social media and its shocking possibilities to communicate globally to and from the masses.

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist @The RE Agency