The headline from CNN looked a bit of a joke at first but it is true "Michael Jackson Dies, Almost Takes Internet with Him." No, there is nothing funny about the first part because the entire world is mourning with the loss of the King of Pop, rather, the dangling phrase which followed about the World Wide Web.
Reports have it that the sudden passing away of the King of Pop last June 26, 2009 caused some massive outages in several key news reporting sites such as Google News and the social networking community Twitter. CNN, on the other hand, had about 20 million page views when the story first broke. Even up to his death, Michael Jackson, always the innovator, was behind this strange and recent phenomenon - where the death of a very important person engaged the entire World Wide Web into a very solidified community. This is another proof that even without 3D virtual communities, social media sites are virtual worlds in their own right. As of writing this, there have been no known causes yet as of the death of Michael Jackson. Initial reports attribute it to a cardiac arrest but more and more developments are pouring in about the involvement of Demerol, a lethal painkiller. These kinds of updates are fueling these social media networks to stay on the same page regarding the same topic - along the sides, intense discussions and heartfelt tributes are given. The hysteria which followed regarding the abrupt death of Michael Jackson has been compared with the global concern when US President John F. Kennedy was assassinated or when Princess Diana died in a car accident.
Cartoon Network
There were lots of people which assembled in front of the UCLA hospital where Michael was rushed as well as Times Square where updates are being given (this is the area where MJ first performed as a child prodigy back in the 1960s).
If this is the number of people who can physically come here, just imagine how much concerned people who are in the comfort of their computers at home and in different countries are participating in social networking sites such as Twitter. With the number of outages reported, I'm sure it's not a few. In fact, protesters in Iran who were using Twitter as one of their more trusted avenues of communication to the outside world could not even post updates because of these outages. Here is a sample post: "Irony: The protesters in Iran using Twitter as com are unable to get online because of all the posts of 'Michael Jackson RIP.' Well done."
There is only about two weeks before Michael Jackson would conquer the stage once again for his comeback concert tour planned this July 2009 - but sadly that is not happening anymore. If it had pushed through, would Michael have created his own Twitter account to update people of his concert preparations? Apart from Twitter, another virtual community which has seen a spike in usage is YouTube (and similar video hosting sites). Fortunately, Michael left us with a boatload of albums, music videos, and live performances to relive his musical prodigy.
We know Michael has also had his own share of scandals and controversies throughout his career. But his legacy will still stick to all his musical accolades (His 1982 album Thriller remains the best-selling album of all-time). Not just that, the way the world responded to his death may well go down history too. According to AOL consumer adviser Regina Lewis: "It could go down as the biggest mobile event in history," Lewis said. She felt that was in part because people were checking news headlines from work. "People wanted to keep tabs on this story, but if you're an accountant you're supposed to be working on your spreadsheet. So they were using their personal cell phones to do so," she explained.
Michael Jackson - Virtual Communities Unite For King of Pop
Aldric Chang is a creative entrepreneur who is at the moment building free online adventure games for kids and running a successful cartoon animation studio. His creative accomplishments span across the production of several hundred animation projects, casual games, music compositions, cartoon animated series and a virtual world for kids.
No comments:
Post a Comment