By Stevens Muendo
Popular TV anchors did not break news of Michael Jackson’s death.
The breaking news first spread online, through Internet social networks and blogs. And due to their unfamiliar outlets, the initial reports were confusing.
Is Michael Jackson still alive? Have you heard? Was he in a coma… questions spread like wildfire across news sites, Facebook and Twitter. The celebrity Web site TMZ.com. site broke the news of Jackson’s death at 5pm, Thursday.
It was a huge scoop for the Aol-owned TMZ, though many did not believe the report until it was matched by more established news organisations. Hours after the reports, local fans jammed Internet social network sites chatting about the maestro’s demise. With news of the star’s death, Twitter’s update frequency doubled. That was no match for Facebook though, which tripled its update.
From these to the local Kumekucha and numerous blog sites, Jackson’s death became the Internet’s topic of the day as many die-hard fans expressed sorrow even as others dismissed the fallen star as an over-rated icon.
Twitter completely removed its ‘trending topics’ and ‘search’ functions on the site after news of the death of Jackson, which placed an unseen amount of strain on the social networking site.
"We saw an instant doubling of tweets per second the moment the story broke," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone told the Los Angeles Times.
Kumekucha had a string of writers mailing in.
"He popped onto the music scene, thrilled the world, conquered it and became king. Wacko Jacko was more than a phenomenon, he was an institution. Besides his record-breaking sales, his electrifying dance moves were not only athletic but remain uniquely synonymous." The blog had posted.
