The Death of a Legend
Although her death occurred a few days ago, we are just recently learning how news of Whitney Houston's death spread. As with many topics that spread like wildfire throughout the world, Houston's death advanced via social media, especially Twitter. One very intriguing angle of all of this widespread reach is that it was announced on Twitter for the first time by @BarBeeBritt, 55 minutes before the Associated Press announced it.
Here is a timeline of the events that resulted that day:
3:55pm PST: Whitney pronounced dead by Beverly Hills Police
4:02pm PST:
4:15pm PST:
4:57pm PST:
It's incredible to think about the fact that an ordinary civilian broke the news of Whitney Houston's death almost an hour before a global news corporation was able to share it. Twitter is a testament to how powerful social media is today and the possibilities it creates with real-time updates.
It was not until AP tweeted this statement that it became widespread news. 5:23pm PST was the peak of 1,179 tweets per second about Houston's passing.
Sources: @isaach, Twitter
Seems logical to think about the sudden jump in the graph above because AP is a credible news source, and tweeters do not want be part of a lie just as many have been recently with fake deaths such as Jon Bon Jovi and premature death claims about Joe Paterno before he had truthfully be pronounced dead.
The "Death" of a Tweeter
It may not be as fake a death as Bon Jovi's was, but "#RIPChrisBrown" became a trending topic on Twitter soon after the Grammys.
Chris Brown performed Sunday night on the Grammy stage, but it was his performance off the stage that has caused so much buzz.
Brown continued to respond to negative tweets about his violent past with singer Rhianna until he finally snapped and tweeted, "HATE ALL U WANT BECUZ I GOT A GRAMMY Now! That's the ultimate F*** OFF!"
Brown tried to delete the tweets but it was too late before it flashed across the web. He has just a select few tweets remaining; however, this is not the entertainers first time getting into trouble on Twitter. In 2009, Brown deleted his Twitter account after controversial comments on retailers that supplied his music.
If I were his publicist I would suggest it's about time Brown receives some social media etiquette.
These days it seems that no matter what happens in the world, it can be found throughout social media, and extremely quick at that. Social media is still in its beginning stages and the way it will end up affecting us all in the future has yet to be seen.