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by Jerry Liao, Philippines

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Michael Jackson memorial coverage--a test between traditional and New Media

Jul 5, 2009 07:46

The much-awaited memorial service of Michael Jackson at the Staple Center will finally provide MJ fans a chance to bid their idol farewell one last time. As many as 700,000 or more fans are expected to troop to the venue just for a glimpse of the King of Pop. Unfortunately, only 17,500 free tickets will be provided. That is why authoritites are advising people not to proceed to the venue if they don't have tickets. Areas around Staple Center will also be blocked to prevent people from crowding the center.

Authorities are also advising people to stay home and watch the memorial service on their TV set and/or the Internet since it will be aired live on both mediums. Which brings me to wonder which medium will prove more effective in its coverage--traditional media or New Media?

TV, of course as always, will still be the same. The event will be aired live and can be beamed to any place via satelite. Regardless of the number of people or households that will be tuned in to the coverage, the same quality and speed will be given.

The same cannot be said with New Media. The Web site of the Staple Center went down due to people visiting the site for free tickets. Something like 500,000 Web visitors flooded the site. And all they were doing was simply to register. The sheer traffic brought the service down.

Come coverage day, people will be accessing sites and would be craving for video content. Video content is bandwidth-heavy, so I am not sure if the servers and their bandwidth are ready to address this event. Can Twitter, Facebook, Google, Bing and YouTube handle the traffic?

Two things will happen here in case the servers fail--services will be down or the delivery of the content will be slow, very slow that is.

The Web is great. We can access it anywhere and anytime. But I think when it comes to a global event such as MJ's memorial service, the Internet is somewhat lacking still compared with traditional media.

That is why I always say that both traditional and New Media will co-exist in these changing times. Both need each other to be able to inform an information-hungry public.

What do you think?

God bless us all!

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About Jerry Liao

Jerry Liao is an IT consultant in the Philippines who conducts seminars on various tech topics. He is a regular columnist of Manila Bulletin, a member of the academe, a system developer and a system analyst. He is a frequent fixture in press conferences and tech launchings, most of which are posted at infochat.com.ph. He loves to tinker with the latest gadgets and gizmos, but his most cherish possession are his children.