Searching for Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson RememberedMichael Jackson left the offline world last week forever, but his online presence has exploded into the infinite, and very much alive, abyss.

Much of the media has commented on the passing of Michael Jackson and the social media shock waves that jolted through the online hemisphere. Jackson had a profound effect on people all over the world. His passing left a void in the industry, but it also brought a new type of influence and swarm to the internet that hasn’t occurred with this magnitude before. This is because the last worldwide sensation to pass was probably Princess Diana, who died August 31, 1997–well before the Internet waves of influence were formed in a massive way. Continue reading “Searching for Michael Jackson”

Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and social visualization

Death of MJ Twittered

Much will be said over the next week or so about the passing of two iconic celebrities Thursday, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, whose work will forever be associated with particular moments in our cultural history.  I was a teenager at the height of Farah Fawcett’s launch and was well aware of the impact of her world-famous poster on all my male teenage friends.  I also danced to many of MJ’s top 10 singles and watched his life choices play out over the national stage.

Today, the social Web, as we saw happen with Iran, impacts the movement of information about these two well known celebrities.  Beyond Twitter and some blog entries, many sites have moved toward the artful use of visualization software to capture the impact and tremendous activity of newsworthy information.  A day like today is when their stories play out. Continue reading “Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and social visualization”