On Tuesday, July 7th, 2009, at about 10 am Pacific Daylight Time, social media will have yet another first: Michael Jackson’s funeral. I would expect CNN, NBC, CBS, and all the other major networks to be broadcasting from Los Angeles, CA, and one would think that nearly every newspaper will have a spread about the events at The Staples Center the following morning. For this event, however, Twitter, FriendFeed, and Hulu will be there alongside the conventional media.
Here’s the announcement from @BreakingNews:
According to Michael van Poppel (@mpoppel), founder of @BreakingNews and BNONews, the service will be filmed by AEG, in high definition video, which will then be given to all the networks, to Hulu, and will also be streaming here, courtesy of BNONews. Van Poppel also says that the event will be live blogged right next to the video stream, and will also be covered on Twitter and FriendFeed.
This is a true testament to the rise of social media, away from the fringe of the technorati more towards mainstream. What other services could put spread the event as virally, quickly, and to the endless masses as well as the titans of social media? Perhaps this sort of thing is a prime example of the declining power of traditional media. I recall vividly the tales of past generations describing listening with bated breath for the radio announcer. Now, the real event, live and in my living room is the announcer.
Cut out the middle man.
