Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse, Steve Jobs and Whitney Houston were all taken from this world too soon, and the reaction to their deaths on the Internet was overwhelming.
On Saturday, the most recent celebrity death of Whitney Houston flooded Twitter accounts worldwide. According to an article, more than 2 million tweets about Houston’s death occurred within the first hour after the news broke. The tweets peaked at more than 1,000 per second. According to the infographic below, this is more than Michael Jaskson’s death, which hit 456 tweets per second. However, neither can compete with the announcement of Beyonce and Jay Z’s baby, which hit a whopping 8,886 tweets per second or Super Bowl XLVI which now holds the record at 12, 233 tweet per second. (Yes, you did read that right!)
Although there are conflicting accounts, a Mashable article states that a Twitter user tweeted about the death of Houston to his 14 followers, 27 minutes before a credible news source.
So what does this mean for news sources? Are more people turning to Twitter and other social media outlets to obtain news? Check out the infographic below from PCMag.com, created by Leslie Horn, and let us know what you think.
Twitter Infographic Courtesy of Leslie Horn from pcmag.com.