The Internet and the world are buzzing right now about the passing of Michael Jackson. How people are seeking information, and where they are turning for news has transformed with wider adoption of Social Media platforms and the Web. The story of Michael Jackson’s death shows the information lag from traditional media outlets and search engine results.  To fill this void, more and more people are turning to social platforms for news stories and updates. The Michael Jackson story was clearly broken by TMZ.com through their blog.

Here’s a quick overview of how the story broke and spread:

• TMZ.com posted to their blog at 4:30 ET that Michael was transported to the hospital with apparent cardiac arrest and was not “doing well.”
• Twitter starts buzzing with this news
• TMZ.com blogged again at 5:02 ET that Jackson had passed
• Twitter buzz spreads fast and furious overloading the platform

Traditional news outlets were scrambling to report the Jackson story. By 5:00 ET CNN was saying he was rushed to the hospital, and carrying the inaccurate news from the LA Times that Michael Jackson was in a coma. While driving home, radio channels across the dial were reporting the TMZ account that Michael Jackson was dead, and playing his hits in his memory. It took traditional news outlets like the AP and CNN until 7:45 ET to report his passing.

The search engines were also reeling from the flood of searches. Google results displayed an error for searches containing “Michael Jackson.” Once it was back up Google had one news link with the story of Jackson’s death.  Yahoo! had links to news of his hospitalization the news section. Bing was way behind the curve with results showing Michael Jackson concert tickets for sale. The only mention of the news was a link that appeared at bottom of an endlessly scrolling page.

So, what does it all mean? First, it is additional proof that there is a shift away from traditional news channels to get the most up to date information. We have blogged about Twitter’s importance for information coming out of Iran, and how traditional news channels are scouring Social Media platforms for the most recent news to report from Tehran. Even with 24 hour news channels, there is still lag in access to information and ability to capture some events. Social Media and social networking can fill the voids of time and information. Reliability is the question.

This shift toward adoption of Social Media as the news will undoubtedly continue.  As the story of Jackson’s death was spreading, false statements that Jeff Goldblum and Harrison Ford were also dead hit the Twitter stream. Because of those types of stories, many will dismiss social platforms as inaccurate. I disagree since the “true” stories consistently rise to the top. The Goldblum and Ford rumors were squashed by Tweeters, and the Jackson story continued to spread. Reliability will increase as people will become more sophisticated in using these tools to share and search for stories, and the power of the social web will continue to unfold.