Benin Brown

The sad news of Michael Jackson's passing yesterday illustrates both the frailties and the inter connectedness of the web. There are reports that several prominent media sites went down as a result of massive server overloads due to people trying to figure out if TMZ was correct in their confirmation of his passing.

Tech Crunch writes:

Even recounting my own steps yesterday, I recall trying to understand who this "TMZ" was and why they were saying that MJ had become deceased when everyone else seemed to be saying something so differently for at least one to three hours after TMZ broke the news.

The next thing that happened is that while driving I heard a syndicated talk show host on the radio confirm the news, citing TMZ as the source. By the time I made it back to a desktop about an hour and a half later, all of the other media houses seemed to be comfortable enough with their sources that this news was indeed true and in the process many of their sites began to fail.

I think part of the reason for the near collapse of the web was the time of the day that the news came out-which was in the afternoon, around the time that most people were at work. Another interesting thing that this sad episode seems to reinforce is the difference between mainstream media and new media and the limitations of both.

TMZ being more of a new media company does not necessarily face the same type of fact checking scrutiny that a mainstream media (MSM) company might feel pressured to yield to as new media is not held to the same level of journalistic standards as MSM companies. As a result, most people initially learned about Michael Jackson's passing via some form of digital media-be it Twitter, TMZ, Facebook, Google, or etc. However, many of the same people-myself included did not believe the claim to be valid until MSM outlets confirmed it. Similiarly, although slower at reporting the news than the new media companies MSM mediums do not crash or go down, like websites have a tendency to do under such major events.

As an odd twist or backdrop to this story, I am hearing that there are several news outlets in conjunction with either a state or federal judge who are trying to change the copyright laws that govern the web, as a result of so many different online mediums running with the story immediately after it broke. In my opinion this would be the worse thing to happen to journalism in a very long time.

RIP Michael Jackson, you are sorely missed.