MJ = OJ (Squared)

It's been about 72 hours since Michael Jackson was pronounced dead in a Los Angeles hospital. The global reaction to Jackson's death has made one thing very clear: over the coming months, we are going to see our multi-mediated celebrity-focused, Internet connected world crank up to heretofore unprecedented levels.

This handy equation should help clarify what I mean:

MJ = OJ²

Many of us remember the media festival that was unleashed the day OJ Simpson led a phalanx of police cars, police helicopters, news choppers, passersby and hangers-on in the Prologue to a drama that culminated with OJ being jailed in a coda as bizarre as the events that preceded it.

That parade signaled the beginning of a "news" feeding frenzy unlike any we'd seen before. Remember? The trial...Johnnie Cochran, Judge Ito, the bloody glove, the acquittal.

But that was nothing compared to what we're about to see unfolding before us now.

It's easy to say in retrospect that Michael Jackson's passing would be a global event. Hundreds of millions of people have taken to the streets, many in costume, all singing and dancing to music that spanned almost four decades. But events of this magnitude emerge from a pool of deep feeling; they cannot be manufactured. They may be managed but they cannot be created. Only genuine connections cause that many people to spontaneously react with such fervor.

And the global media is both watching and fanning that fervor. The deep, dark complexities of Michael Jackson's life and death will be played out on screens of all sizes over then next year. We will see charges, counter-charges, plot twists, exposés, lawyers, media accountants, child psychologists, toxicologists; and that will just be in the next month.

But the real story will be the way the story will unfold on the Internet.

The OJ trial stayed front and center in the media world by dragging on for months in the cable TV spotlight.

But the MJ story will be kept alive by an explosion of fan-created media, like this Twitterized version of Billie Jean. CNN may have "owned" the OJ story, but millions of online MJ fans will own this one. Given today's tech landscape, look for Michael Jackson to dominate the Internet for a long time to come. Look for Jackson's musical legacy to inspire countless of creative Netizens, most experiencing their first taste of the death of an icon, to produce an outpouring of material that will last a very long time. Look for mash-ups of all kinds. Look for recreations of scenes from his life. Look for things that will make you scratch your head in wonder.

We are at the very beginning of the story of the first truly disruptive death in the age of the Internet.

Comments

[connie sartain]

I was wondering what your take on all this is...besides brilliant...Walking through Central Park today, I ran across street entertainers putting on an MJ show...Billie Jean was blaring and a boy, 7 max, was remarkably doing back flips (on concrete) and isolation moves, others were doing some equally challenging dance gymnastics to the music, including some yoga postures, all evocative of MJ...and I marveled how easy it was to conjure him w/ the right hat and white socks...as we all waited for the moonwalk as the kids took turns dancing ....His uniqueness was so singleminded, so tight, that the kids can actually mimic well..just think of all the costumes MJ has made his own...Connie

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