third tier saga

Combined with stats on viewers interested in Michael Jacksons death compared to the likes of Princess Diana or Pope John Paul II, the AJR editor writes about media transformation and coverage of high profile cases. He goes on to rank JonBenet, Laci Peterson as second or third tier sagas while referring to Natalee Holloway as "the missing blonde girl". Now it's a given these three girls became famous as a result of their respective tragedies, but was it really necessay to illude to Natalee like that?--

The Michael Jackson Explosion
By Rem Rieder (rrieder@ajr.umd.edu) is AJR's editor and publisher.
7/10/09

"Has the death of Michael Jackson been seriously overcovered? Of course. But I'm having trouble working up much outrage over it...

The problem with the cable channels is that they ALWAYS have to have a top-of-the-charts story. That leads to the ridiculous excesses on famous-for-being-famous people like Anna Nicole Smith and Paris Hilton, on second- or third-tier sagas like Laci Peterson and JonBenet Ramsay and the missing blonde in Aruba...

31.1 million tuned in to 19 TV networks, according to Nielsen, more than three times more than watched Pope John Paul II's funeral and nearly as many as watched Princess Diana's. Many millions more watched online – global Internet traffic jumped by a third during the service. A figure with that kind of impact deserves a lot of attention, whatever you thought of him.

The news media, as you might have noticed, have no shortage of problems as they struggle to survive in a wrenching era of transformation. Saturation coverage of Michael Jackson's death isn't very high on the list."

About the American Journalism Review (AJR)

"American Journalism Review is a national magazine that covers all aspects of print, television, radio and online media. The magazine, which is published six times a year, examines how the media cover specific stories and broader coverage trends. AJR analyzes ethical dilemmas in the field and monitors the impact of technology on how journalism is practiced and on the final product. The magazine is published by the University of Maryland Foundation with offices in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland..."