Who would have thought a herd could moonwalk?

4 July 2009

The acclaimed web theorist, Mark Earls, says that the death of Michael Jackson unleashed the extremes of collective action: mass mourning and sick jokes

‘All character is action’ goes the old Hollywood cliché — that is, we learn far more about people by how they behave than we do from what they tell us about themselves. Whatever else you think about the internet (for good or ill), it does two really important but significantly different things to allow us to pursue this study of homo sapiens: first, it allows us to connect with each other in ways and with a frequency unimaginable just a few years ago (and so amplifies our natural tendencies); and second, perhaps more significantly, it allows the curious to watch and listen to how vast numbers of folk respond to events in the outside world and marvel at how they interact with each other as a result. It helps us see the character of the human beast in action.

This week has offered us a prime example of this. For those of you who have been asleep, marooned on a desert island, locked in the Big Brother house or for some other reason isolated from all news media and/or human contact, at 19.21 GMT last Thursday one of Michael Jackson’s staff called the emergency services to his LA residence and the star was pronounced dead of a cardiac arrest a short time later. While the death the same day of another 1970s pin-up, Farrah Fawcett, seems to have generated a moderate amount of affectionate and respectful response around the world — polite obituaries in newspapers and on news sites and tender messages of respect — Jackson’s sudden and dramatic demise has unleashed a tide of really interesting human behaviour.

First, there has been a rush to share the news with other people: long before the mainstream media got hold of the story, ‘Michael Jackson RIP’ was being passed from person to person, via blogs and instant messaging, Facebook and Twitter. Indeed, Wikipedia turned out to be the best news service of all — one of the first mentions of the story was on Wikipedia’s Michael Jackson page. Wherever an individual picked up the story — i.e. from traditional or new media — he or she seemed to want to pass it on to others. Indeed, for the first couple of days, the story — like all hot news items — seemed to become de rigueur in small talk, like a new but temporary feature of modern manners.

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Moonshine

July 2nd, 2009 8:19am Report this comment

A sigh ......ohhoooerrugh gggggrrrooooannnnnn.......enuff orlreddy (sic)

ian skidmore

July 2nd, 2009 11:30am Report this comment

must you add to the acres of newsprint wasted on this poor sick man?
Max Wall and Wilson Kepple and Betty did a much better moonwalk before he was born.
Forgive me if you have mentioned this. I haven't read the article

Kathryn Parsons

July 2nd, 2009 11:35am Report this comment

Genius...

Mr Green

July 3rd, 2009 10:40am Report this comment

When you say "we", please exclude me.

MikePost

July 3rd, 2009 1:17pm Report this comment

Only in America can a poor black boy grow up to be a rich white woman.

Peter Colledge

July 3rd, 2009 3:24pm Report this comment

Many years ago, there was a film satire where a white racist becomes black overnight. In no arena whatsoever could the reverse happen, and I'm sure Jackson knew this from an early age. (cf OJ Simpson in a social context)