The King of Pop has clearly regained his throne since his untimely passing on June 25 — dominating Billboard’s Top Pop Catalog Albums chart, among others.
But with his unfortunate death, we have the opportunity to see how social media and the latest technology allows news organizations around the world to cover the same story in vastly different ways.
CNN and Facebook are teaming up to provide live video and chat potentials for Internet users.
As I type, Michael Jackson’s hearse and family is arriving at the Staples Center in Los Angeles — live on CNN, FOX News and MSNBC. As expected, all three American cable news networks have been carrying wall-to-wall coverage all morning of the lead up to the memorial slated to start at 1 p.m. today.
The Hearst Connecticut newspaper properties, including the Connecticut Post, the Danbury News-Times and the Advocate, are streaming the memorial live on the top of their respective news sites.
UPDATED at 1:08 p.m. E.D.T.:
All of the networks — CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News and even BBC World — are airing Michael Jackson coverage. Because cameras were not allowed into the Staples Center, ABC News utilized “technology I don’t understand,” as anchor Charles Gibson put it, to allow correspondent Cynthia McFadden to do a live, albeit grainy, report from inside.
UPDATED at 1:19 p.m. E.D.T.:
CNN is showing folks watching the memorial from around the world. And to get around the problem that they do not control the feed originating from the Staples Center, they are showing a live stream originating from a camera phone. It’s quite effective.
UPDATED at 1:23 p.m. E.D.T.:
CNN’s Anderson Cooper mentioned a few minutes ago that today’s memorial could very well set records for the total number of viewers of one event — thanks to Jackson’s astounding popularity around the world, particularly in Asia and Europe; the potential of the Internet and the fact the memorial organizers uploaded the memorial feed at no charge to satellites and servers around the world.
UPDATED at 1:26 p.m. E.D.T.:
CNN and Facebook have teamed up to enable viewers around the world to watch various live feeds of Michael Jackson-related events and chat in real time about the events.
Meanwhile, FOX News has set up a number of forums and streams to encourage users to share their perspectives:
FOX News has set up a number of forums to allow users to share their perspective.
UPDATED at 1:37 p.m. E.D.T.:
MSNBC is doing something similar to CNN — they are streaming the memorial live, but instead of partnering with Facebook, they went with Twitter. However, the Twitter feed doesn’t seem to be flowing as smoothly as CNN’s. However, MSNBC allows users to embed their footage directly into users’ blogs… which is a huge advantage to anything CNN or FOX News apparently does.
MSNBC allows users to watch the Jackson memorial and Tweet simultaneously.
UPDATED at 2:01 p.m. E.D.T.:
The BBC did something much less powerful, but still efficient. They encouraged fans to send their tributes to their king:
UPDATED at 2:15 p.m. E.D.T.:
ABCNews.com offers something a little different. Like CNN, a Facebook element is utilized — though CNN’s seems to be more popular — and live streams. And like FOX News, ABC News offers several forums and photo galleries of Jackson’s life:
ABC News offers users a variety of ways to remember and share their thoughts about the King of Pop's life.
UPDATED at 2:30 p.m.:
Michael Jackson is dominating Twitter. The social networking site keeps a real-time tally of what users are talking about. I have never seen one person or event taking up so many spots:
UPDATED at 2:37 p.m.:
The New York Times is doing something I have to see any other news organization do — update a blog from the event. It is a very effective and powerful tool for events like this.
The N.Y. Times captures the mood of the memorial with frequent updates of the memorial, global reaction and a call for user content.
UPDATED at 2:47 p.m.:
Some local stations, including WCBS-TV in New York, are utilizing Twitter to encourage viewers to send in memories of Jackson:
UPDATED at 2:51 p.m.:
Michael Jackson’s untimely passing has given us all a glimpse of what the Internet has to offer in future global news events. It’s quite fascinating and exciting to see how the various news organizations are opting to execute the coverage of the same story… and to think social media is still in its infancy.
