Bigger than the internet?

Michael Jackson’s death caused has caused shockwaves throughout the world, with fans mourning the death of the proclaimed ‘King of Pop.’ However, with his death being the front page of many websites, other reports circulating the web indicate that his death has caused shockwaves on the world’s social networking sites.

The server of the popular microblogging service ‘Twitter’ crashed with the number of people posting status updates. Before the company’s server’s crashed, it was noted that “Michael Jackson” appeared in more than 66,500 Twitter updates. Reports suggest that there were more than 100,000 posts per hour on the site on Thursday afternoon (American time).

Facebook similarly showed the breaking of the news, with many of my friend’s posting status updates regarding Jackson’s death, with several updating every time a new announcement was made. In addition to this, many people replied to updates with many statuses’ getting several comments by many authors.

Status updates left by people show “a true legend died tonight,” “mourning” and “Thriller to number 1 on Sunday?” This shows how the world has evolved, with 24 hour news cycles and people’s views being aired in various multi-media related ways.

Wider Internet

The site that broke the news of Jackson’s death, TMZ, also crashed. People who searched for Michael Jackson were greeted with an error page as opposed to one giving search results. Google have admitted that searches for Jacksons rose astronomically during the peak where he was reported dead. Other big internet sites reported an increase in traffic.

The media storm that surrounds Jackson’s death has also shown the world the problem with Wikipedia. The online encyclopaedia suffered issues last night as people were editing Jackson’s Wikipedia page with up-to-the-minute information. It shows how anyone can change Wikipedia and that as an academic tool it should be used to guidelines, but perhaps not as one that can be 100% used, which needs corroboration before being presented as true.

Jackson’s death has caused a mass-media frenzy, both among journalists and the wider public. Questions over whether he had passed his prime musically and over allegations of paedophilia are all part of the Jackson debate, but perhaps the story not read by many will be the changing character of the internet on the world.