Consumer Centric

So much has been written about Michael Jackson in the last several days that the total storage space connected to the web must have doubled, at least.  That’s no surprise given the significant role he played in our society on so many levels… the King of Pop certainly had every aspect of social buzz in everything he did.

Obviously, much has been said about the spread of his death via Twitter and other social media tools in a way that traditional news media outlets couldn’t match.  Had the news turned out to be a rumor we’d all be having conversations about the terrible nature of these tools to spread falsehoods.  But, it didn’t and we aren’t.  Truth is it was fascinating to watch.

I found myself in the odd place of being near the home of the King of Rock and Roll when the death of the King of Pop was confirmed.  Changing planes, I checked twitter to see if confirmations had been made (I had picked up news immediately before my flight left DesMoines to Memphis) and then saw the airport TV screens with traditional outlets covering it.

My colleagues and I wanted to see a bit of the spread, or at least try to, by reaching out to the Twitterverse and asking when and how people first learned of the news.  You’d expect the answer to have been all Twitter given our audience, right?  Not so… the first two were radio and Instant Message.  

We didn’t have a huge sampling, but enough to see an interesting flow (some were duplicated times/channels so we’ve just shown specific times reported).  Check how fast this all goes down (all times pacific) … 12:21pm paramedics called to Jackson’s home, at 2:26pm he is officially pronounce dead, at 2:44pm TMZ reports his death.  Six minutes later our respondents (from all time zones in the US) first heard the news, starting with radio.

2:50pm Radio (but reported not confirmed)

3:00pm Instant Message from friend

3:01pm Twitter

3:04pm Tweet from Ashton Kutcher @aplusk

3:05pm Twitter

3:07pm Twitter

3:30pm Time Square rolling news reports

3:32pm NY Times app on iPhone

4:00pm Text message

4:30pm Twitter

Television was nowhere in this early mix, and nearly all were friends or social networks reporting the news within 14 to 24 minutes of the official word being pronounced by the coroner.  And so it spread across the world.

Twitter activity started with news of Jackson’s death at almost the same moment as TMZ made their announcement, preceded by news of the fact he was rushed to the hospital in cardiac arrest.  Some of the earliest I could find on Twitter via Twist:

1:46pm @BreakingNews BULLETIN — MICHAEL JACKSON TAKEN TO LOS ANGELES HOSPITAL IN CARDIAC ARREST, TMZ.COM REPORTS. 

1:58pm @tshore1023  God, please don’t let Michael Jackson have had a heart attack. I can’t take more bad news from Hollywood today- Farrah is enough xoxo

2:27pm @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher) Michael Jackson had a heart attack?

2:42pm @BreakingNews FLASH — LOS ANGELES — “KING OF POP” MICHAEL JACKSON HAS DIED.

2:45pm @japanberlynne  TMZ MICHEAL JACKSON DIED!

3:04pm @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher) Mike Jackson passed away today from a heart attack

The group composition of some of the earliest Twitterers of this news fascinates me:  @BreakingNews is BNOnews the breaking news wire across the globe.  As of today (7/3/09) they have 719,412 followers.  @tshore1023 is a self-described “slightly obsessed Madonna fan – my musings, rants, desires, and whatever else wants to spill out of this freakish mind into cyberspace!”  She lives in North Carolina and has 1,011 followers.  @aplusk is Ashton Kutcher, no intro needed, and he has 2,579,368 followers.  Finally, @japanberlynne is someone named Amber who lives in Williston, North Dakota (population 12,393) and has 25 followers.

The reporters:  a major news wire, global movie star and Twitter phenom, a Madonna fan, and a gal from a small town in North Dakota.  Across this crew, in a matter of minutes you have 3,299,816 people who had the possibility of seeing this news. Within seconds it spread dramatically wider. And here you see the fascinating reality of today’s world of information spread–you and I, celebrities, and news organizations have equal opportunity to spread to very wide audiences.  The debate, of course, now centers on whether this is good or bad mostly because of the confidence (or lack of confidence) in the truthfulness of the information shared.

Many of us participated in this activity like crazy.  In fact, by 3:30pm Michael Jackson references on Twitter reached above 20% of all Tweets.  News reports now suggest Twitter, Google, and Wikipedia all hit capacity at the same time. [As a side note, we're seeing similar activity on Sarah Palin's resignation as I wrap up this post].

Traditional news outlets reported on a different timeline.  The LA Times appears to be the first to confirm the death.  And it wasn’t until 3.27pm that the AP reported “a person with knowledge of the situation says Michael Jackson has died” and nearly an hour later, at 4.25pm, CNN reported Jackson died. [Special thanks to the UK's MailOnline for timeline and other resources.]

How will this social spread of information continue to change the way we look at the news and powerful news stories?  Clearly, gossip and irresponsible junk will always be there, it always has.  But, the other power we saw in the social spread tools is our ability as a “crowd” to quickly sniff out the lies.  As a result, it seems the method of vetting information for its accuracy actually spreads and evolves through the rapid spread of the masses, the news wires, and the celebrities at once.

Fascinating stuff.  Now let’s figure out what it all means in terms of new services emerge to leverage these tools and meet our daily interests and needs.

Hey… to help out… if you don’t mind:  When AND how did you first learn of Michael Jackson’s death?  And, what do you think this all means? Thanks! Happy 4th of July!