
Mega Star
In the 1980s, there was satirical parody edition of the New York Post printed and the headline read: WORLD WAR III! FIVE BILLION AND MICHAEL JACKSON DIE!
Forget North Korea’s threat of nuclear war, the civil uprising in Iran, the latest soliders killed in action in Iraq, General Motors, the economy, and Obama’s health care reform — Michael Jackson’s death dominated all major news outlets on TV, radio, and print over the weekend, and continues to do so. His death may be bigger than Princess Di’s or the last Pope.
This proved to be the same online. The death of Michael Jackson proved to be both a boon and a bane in the world of digital media over the weekend. As news spread of the King of Pop’s death — celebrity gossip site TMZ.com broke the story on Thursday while other news outlets got the sory wrong at first — traffic to news and social networking sites erupted to record levels, causing problems the likes of which had not been seen since the presidential election.
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