The Washington Post discusses the death of Michael Jackson being first spread through sites such as Twitter before being confirmed by more traditional news sources. Interestingly, consumption of news can be tracked with Google Trends and iTunes.

Within a few hours of the news of Jackson’s death, his 1982 album “Thriller” was the No. 1 album on iTunes. Several of his discs were also in the top 10 of the digital store.

I’ve always been fascinated by the power of social media that permeates through our daily lives. I am sure for the upcoming year there will be many supposed lifelong Michael Jackson fans, all of whom are unwilling to admit to his death being a catalyst to their consumption of what’s now considered relevant. I’m sure of it because until this afternoon, no one was talking about Michael.

Poor lake bacteria eaten boy.