HomeEditors' BlogsEditors' PicksEntertainment NewsAbout Us
 

Jul 14 2009; 4:25 PM
Coverage of Jackson's death and memorial seems everywhere, generates complaints and massive audience.
From the "Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism." comes the following interesting summary of the ongoing coverage of Michael Jackson's death and Palin's resignation.

"the Jackson story was primarily a television event last week. Cable and network news each devoted 28% of the airtime studied to the story. It was a particularly hot topic on the network morning shows, where it filled 43% of the a.m. newshole studied—the first half hour of those broadcasts."

"Together the Jackson and Palin storylines accounted for about a quarter of the coverage last week, as measured by PEJ’s weekly News Coverage Index, which monitors the coverage in 55 different media outlets. Those two stories, indeed, generated more attention than three events that might fit a more traditional definition of news. The ongoing economic crisis, the skirmishing over health care legislation and President Obama’s Moscow summitry combined to fill 22% of the weekly newshole." (source: www.journalism.org)

The coverage of the Jackson memorial also drew huge numbers to TV news websites. CNN drew nearly 10 million video streams and MSNBC had over 19 million streams.

As noted in our "editors picks" feature, over 35 breaking news alerts have been sent out around Jackson's death. Based on the feedback we have received and on votes on our site, the post death alerts have been see as unnecessary and not real news. We have seen and heard lots of criticism of the seeming blanket coverage of the Jackson death, but the numbers sure indicate that while many complain about what they have to watch , they continue to do so themselves, in record numbers.
61 Comments   add a comment
 
Jul 6 2009; 3:50 PM
It's been a very busy 10 days with many "Breaking News Alerts".
A few notes from a busy period including:

6 majors sent "alerts" re Federer's win & only 4 re Serena Williams win. USA Today sent one for Serena but not for Federer?

Only Fox News had the Steve McNair story as an "alert": "FORMER NFL QUARTERBACK STEVE MCNAIR REPORTEDLY KILLED IN NASHVILLE SHOOTING"

"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin Not Running for Re-Election" was covered with "alerts" from all

Only Fox News and ABC thought Biden's trip was "alert" worthy, "Vice President Joe Biden Arrives in Iraq on Unannounced Trip"

Looks like CNN beat TMZ on the death of Billy Mays. Guess that's a consolation prize in the "got it first contest"; missed MJ's death but....

and of course we were swamped with Michael Jackson alerts, a summary of which can be seen under the heading "Editors Picks". Can't help but wonder how many more we will be adding over the next few days
19 Comments   add a comment
 
Jun 30 2009; 5:19 PM
All the Michael Jackson realted "alerts" to date collected on our Editors Picks page
We have collected all the "breaking news alerts" related to Michael Jackson's death and have posted them on one page. In addition to tracking the different coverage you can also see the much discussed timing of the TMZ alerts.

see the full list by clicking on "Editors Picks" in our masthead or http://www.breakingnewsornot.com/ editorspick.php
14 Comments   add a comment
 
Jun 26 2009; 1:49 PM
Michael Jackson & Farrah Fawcett both dying on same day generated many alerts - but not a record number.
Answers to a number of email questions about this story:

Yesterdays news did generate a large number of "alerts" and the coverage was very consistent, but no it was not the busiest day ever for alerts. Both the U.S. primaries and U.S. election day generated many more alerts.

We were also asked about who had the story first. As far as we can tell TMZ was the first to report both the ambulance part of the story and his death. From the more traditional media CNN seems to have been first with the "Cardiac arrest" portion of the story, and both MSNBC and CNN were first in reporting his death with an "alert", but both cited "other sources" in that release.
14 Comments   add a comment
 
Jun 25 2009; 3:58 PM
"Pop Culture Icon Farrah Fawcett Has Died"
Was the icon status the reason all the news sources sent out this news as an alert?

It will be interesting to see if there is the same reaction to the coverage of her death as there seems to be when alerts go out about the death of other "celebrities", with Ed McMahon being the most recent example.

Other deaths reported via breaking news alerts that sparked comments on this site included Bea Arthur and last years death of Heath Ledger.

Age, stardom level, and type of death all seem to impact on both the editors decision to send out an alert and on our readers reaction to whether or not it was truly breaking news. My guess is that Farrah Fawcett's status as an icon from the 1970's will mean most will understand and agree that this was breaking news, at least to those of us of a certain age.
12 Comments   add a comment
 
Recent Blog Posts
Read By Source
Breaking news Alerts from all these sources in one spot.


Coverage of Jackson's death and memorial seems everywhere, generates complaints and massive audience.
From the "Pew Research Center’s Project... Read Blog
Jul 14 2009 4:25 PM EDT
It's been a very busy 10 days with many "Breaking News Alerts".
A few notes from a busy period including: 6... Read Blog
Jul 6 2009 3:50 PM EDT
All the Michael Jackson realted "alerts" to date collected on our Editors Picks page
We have collected all the "breaking news... Read Blog
Jun 30 2009 5:19 PM EDT
BREAKING NEWS OR NOT SUMMARY

#1 Story by "Yes" Votes
#1 Story by "No" Votes
Longest time with no Breaking News

ENTERTAINMENT BREAKING NEWS
Kourtney Kardashian: Counseling ... MORE


Bookmark and Share Copyright © 2010 BreakingNewsOrNot.com
This site includes images and hyperlinks to content and trademarks that are copyright of their respective rights holder.