Blogs like TMZ and social media powerhouse Twitter may have broken the story of Michael Jackson’s death but the reality is that even the most casual news junkie wanted confirmation from an established journalism institution.
Simon Owens explains and shows Google Trend goodness on how this went down last week regarding the death of the King of Pop.
There’s some evidence that Google users may find credibility more important than speed. I was chatting with an editor at the LA Times who pointed out that Google Trends showed that more searches were aimed at the Times’ coverage of Jackson compared to TMZ’s reporting
This is important. As Owens outlines, that CNN, which is also owned by TMZ’s parent company, waited it out until official confirmation came from reliable sources.
This is something anyone working in journalism needs to watch. TMZ was right. However, readers and established news outlets waited for verfication.
Even with all of this said, news changed last week. Only time will tell in the long run which direction news is headed.
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