At Cre8asiteforums, we’re discussing the Internet response to celebrity deaths. What some of us saw early on, particularly in the case of Michael Jackson, was a mix of shock and grief and a sudden vile response. If you didn’t present the “correct” opinion in Twitter, you could risk being “unfollowed”.
Participants in The Internet Response To Michael Jackson’s Sudden Death bring a variety of experiences from all over the world.
For many, the Internet was NOT the place to go for any kind of solace or even factual information. It is, however, where millions went at first and many sites crashed as a result.
What was your experience like? Do you reach out to your favorite sites and online friends when you hear of the death of someone famous, or do you go for the TV or radio first?
When famous people die, especially if they are known world wide and have fans or followers, we feel as if we had lost somebody close to us, somebody we knew well. We cannot mourn him or her in person, so social sites seem to occupy the place of a mass funeral rite. I was not a fan of Michael Jackson but I was definitely shocked by his death. Fans may have probably swarmed over facebook or twitter and detractors may have had their day criticizing this important musician.
Comment by Jenny — July 7, 2009 @ 3:17 pm
I have been flitting around all over the web in the last week (not enough work to do) and discovered that most of the reports are indeed all favorable regarding MJ that’s Michael Jackson not Michael Jordon!
I came across one video clip and early clip of Mr Moonwalk himself and it bought back a lot of memories. But I have to say I didn’t go looking for Michael but there he was in quite a few places regardless.
It seems a little stupid that people would “unfollow” you for your thoughts or comments.
I normally would go to the television when I wanted to know something about a celebrity but I must say that lately I can’t keep track of any of it and usually just get a pop up of a snidbit of information on the web page that I am viewing and then my memory will take me further to read about the celeb or I just in the end don’t care!
Those are my thoughts anyway!
Regards
Adirect
Comment by Adirec Torytski — July 8, 2009 @ 3:48 am
well, you know, somebody says to be famous you have to die when everybody thinks that you have sth more to give, that is what happens with MJ and social nets reflects that..
Comment by mexican beaches — August 27, 2009 @ 11:44 am
Actually, the first thing i did when i heard about michael jackson’s death, is visit twitter. This actually confirmed that rumour at the time.
Comment by Spyros — October 6, 2009 @ 4:11 pm