Thriller . . . Not really but Michael Jackson has an effect

The global coordination of fans mourning in public was fascinating and the reporting of his death possibly even more telling about our society.

How did Michael Jackson's death affect the internet's performance?

Media has changed over the last 15 years as we see how technology has forced its way into our lives. Newspapers a long flag bearer of how we received our news and information as almost quietly dieing off as the digital age hammers us with new products, formats, and something else to occupy our time.

I really didn’t think I would post anything else about Michael Jackson for several reasons . . . the first I really just don’t care about all of the hype within his lifetime both good and bad. Another is his persona like Elvis, left little to wonder about as both stars dimmed from all the craziness in each life. I like most of mine and younger generations grew up with the singer but with that said I don’t understand how the mystique stayed alive, how people are “missing” him so much after all the controversy, the bizarreness, the stories. The response to the news and now how it was reported has left me the “people watcher” with a few comments nonetheless.

The impact of his death was amplified by social media. 10-years ago, we would have learned of MJ's passing via TV, or a friend or coworker. The mainstream media seemed to miss the boat completely in reporting this as it was the social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook bore the brunt of people’s reactions and news sharing as more details became public knowledge.

Celebrity news websites which were first with the news such as TMZ, the American celebrity gossip site which originally broke the story. Even Google News felt the pressure. Google shut down at one point, mistaking the traffic surge for a virus attack.

When the story first broke Google News did not go down, but users searching for ‘Michael Jackson’ related information were asked to verify they were indeed a human and not a computer attempting to launch a spam attack. However, despite the issue of individual sites going down and experiencing slowness, experts say that at no time was the internet in danger of ‘breaking’.

The last time there was such strain put on the web was in the aftermath of 9/11. However, despite certain individual sites being unable to cope with the pressure in 2001, people could still surf the rest of the web.

Michael Jackson and the Twitter effect, or the 'science' of reporting came to a head as the untimely death of Michael Jackson had a huge impact on parts of the web, and perhaps also highlighted one of the differences between blogging and reporting.

Once again, real people reporting a story, revealed yet another tale of the traditional news media playing catch-up with the digital. However, it took the traditional outlets to lend their credibility to real people reporting. Together, Broadcast + Digital + Mobile showed how the established players such as TMZ.com / AOL / CNN have finally worked out how to tap into the power of convergence.

Both the LA Times and TMZ pages had been updated, but the original TMZ story contained little detail and a lot of certainty. The LA Times story, by contrast, had a lot of verifiable data such as "Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Steve Ruda told The Times" and "Paramedics were called to a home in the 100 block of Carolwood Drive off Sunset Boulevard".

The Chicago Tribune summed it up thusly:

Gossip site TMZ.com, owned by Time Warner, was out in front with Jackson news and digital-era pipelines spread the word, as has happened before with other major celebrity news stories. But it was old media stalwarts that did the heavy lifting, with giants such as The Associated Press and the Web site of the L.A. Times, sister paper of the Chicago Tribune, reporting the fastest, most credible information on the emergency call for paramedics and ultimately his death.

Social media sites were a source of information, rumor, and collective mourning. On Facebook, condolences began appearing within minutes, with some 2 million fans in total on Jackson tribute sties. An average of 100 new friends joined Jackson's MySpace page every minute.

AT&T reported that nearly 65,000 cell phone texts per second were sent at the peak time - more than 60 percent above normal volume.

On YouTube, video tributes also appeared almost instantly - like one from a young break-dancing group in Chicago, or one from a heart broken fan.

At Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, Jackson's entry changed within minutes of the news, from alive, to possibly dead, to dead, to locked from further alterations.

Twitter, a site where users post quick updates, was busy with more than 5,000 tweets per second, as everyone from casual users to celebrities like Ashton Kutcher shared their thoughts, in 140 characters or less.

With his death, there's also been a spike in online consumption of his most popular songs, at one point Jackson had 7 or the top 10 songs downloaded on Apple's iTunes store.

What we know for sure is that no matter your opinion of MJ's private matters (accusations of molestation, childlike behavior and plastic surgery) he never stopped helping change the way we listened and participated in the creation of his music and persona. Jackson was the intersection of art, philanthropy and social movement.

I cannot imagine a ‘brand’ being able to coordinate a product or service launch, update or invention being as powerful as what Michael Jackson's persona did.

His art crossed barriers, his fashion allowed us to appear militant and pop at the same time, his fusion of sounds and collaborative work style saved parts of the music industry in the 80's and gave MTV an injection of legitimacy.

His product endorsements and original scores drove fans to purchase millions of products. He helped define the cola wars. He also helped raise the bar when it came to producing advertising that had an entertaining production quality.

It is an amazing thing the effects an “icon” can have on the media? All major networks changed what they were broadcasting yesterday because of Michael Jackson passing away, and internet sites are all bombarded by searchers. I am not sure if you are one of those people that heard the possibility of something bad happening to Michael Jackson earlier in the day. Scrambling to find out what was going on with this icon was what was on the TV, the radio and the internet. How amazing is that that someone has so much impact on the whole world? The media (internet, radio and television) is so powerful to convey such an icon’s legacy!

Within minutes the ‘bad side’ had items on ebay or placed links on the web to get you to “look” at pictures from the ambulance or other nonsense so they could plant Trojans or keyloggers on your computer to gather personal information. Any event will bring out the best and worst in people.

And for me he will probably be remembered for his crazy behavior, disfigured looks, and the fact that he was probably a lonely person whose money could not buy happiness.

And that is sad.

Ice

* Many internet sources were gleaned for information in this post.