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Short, quick and deadly: After string of celebrity death hoaxes, Twitter is social media assassin

Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com By Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com The Star-Ledger
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on March 29, 2012 at 6:35 AM, updated March 29, 2012 at 11:16 PM
biebersnookibonjovimrbean.JPGClockwise from top left: Pop superstar Justin Bieber, Jersey rock legend Jon Bon Jovi, "Jersey Shore" star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and comedic actor Rowan Atkinson, better known as Mr. Bean have all been subjects of Twitter death rumors.

Call it death by Twitter.

Jon Bon Jovi. Snooki. Mr. Bean. Justin Bieber.

All, at one point or another, hit with some devastating news: They were dead. Well, at least in the realm of the fast-moving social network.

In each case, someone announced the celebrity in question had ceased to live, even though that was not true. So many people retweeted, or shared the information — often as simple as "R.I.P. Justin Bieber," for instance — that it "trended," appearing in a sidebar of hot items that accompanies every user’s Twitter feed.

Six years ago — March 21, 2006 — Twitter and its little blue bird logo joined Facebook and quickly became a giant of social media. Now, name a star of any kind and there’s a good chance they’ve been offed on the network.

There’s been so many "R.I.P." hoaxes that when actual news breaks, it’s hard to know what’s true.

Twitter allows users to post messages of up to 140 characters, creating a constant stream of information. The more people you "follow," the more messages, or "tweets" you’ll see in your feed. And the more false news is circulated, the more tweets lose their credibility to inform, says Pamela Rutledge, director of the Boston and Palo Alto-based Media Psychology Research Center.

"You only need about four R.I.P.s before nobody believes anything," said Rutledge.

A look at the history of Twitter "deaths" shows they can be the product of an intentional hoax, simple miscommunication or the trigger-happy clicks of young users eager to retweet.

bon-jovi-dead-death-twitter.jpgJon Bon Jovi poses for a picture in front of a Christmas tree, holding a note: "Heaven looks a lot like New Jersey," marking the date and time to prove his alleged death was Twitter fiction.

Twitter’s most recent victims include such disparate names as Justin Bieber, 18, and Paul McCartney, 69. They hit the dust this month, Bieber quickly "resurrected" by his legions of "Beliebers" and McCartney cut down by an "RIP" intended to lament the death of the Beatles, as a band. Somehow, that message morphed into the phrase "RIP Paul McCartney." The whole affair seemed like one big game of telephone.

So it was easy to see why when unconfirmed information surfaced on Twitter last month about Whitney Houston dying, some assumed that, like Fidel Castro ("R.I.P." Jan. 2), she had become the subject of a prank or misinformation.

A staggering 2.5 million related tweets and retweets were sent in the hour before the Associated Press could confirm that Houston had indeed passed away, according to Topsy Labs, a firm that indexes social media information. Unlike the prematurely reported death of ailing Penn State coach Joe Paterno in January — a Twitter trend of its own — there was little reason to believe the singer would die.

Other celebrities with links to New Jersey have been felled in the Twitterverse. In December, Bon Jovi’s rumored death trended worldwide, the work of a phony blogged article that carried the stark statement "Jon Bon Jovi dead at age 49." Many took the opportunity to tweet punny song titles (among them, "Wanted: Dead or Alive"). Bon Jovi, who had a show scheduled in Red Bank that night, felt it necessary to pose for a picture in front of a Christmas tree, holding a note: "Heaven looks a lot like New Jersey," marking the date and time, should there be any skeptics.

The impetus for hoaxes is far older than Twitter, said Rutledge. The person responsible earns "social validation," perhaps to fill an "internal deficit" they aren’t satisfying elsewhere, she said.

Some celebrities play ball with hoaxers. On Feb. 5, Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi of "Jersey Shore" got handed a big ol’ "RIP Snooki" in the Twitter trends. She responded by retweeting someone’s slick joke: "#RIPSnooki, the other 629 Pokemon will miss you."

The petite 24-year-old prefaced the tweet with her own comment: "lmao OMG best thing I’ve ever read!" In social media terms, that’s called "engagement" at its finest. By addressing the hoax and laughing it off, she defused it.

A similar notion of ownership may explain why we would retweet something that’s probably false. Rutledge likens it to rubbernecking. For example, tweeting the #RIPSnooki hashtag, fronted by the exclamation, "awah?" (Though few had been so kind).

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As curators of news, we want to show our friends — and more broadly, our followers — that we’re the first to know something, says Kinsey Schofield. And with social media, "It’s more fun to act first, apologize later," she said. In 2010, Schofield, 26, a Los Angeles-based entertainment reporter, posted these words: "R.I.P. Aaron Carter."

Carter, 24, brother to Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys, is a pop singer who peaked in the early 2000s. But Schofield was talking about her goldfish, named for Carter. Regardless, the R.I.P. trended.

"Within 12 hours (Carter) came on Twitter and said he was alive and in 24 hours E! News reported the story," Schofield said, calling the tweet "A test of influence and just ... boredom." In January, Carter’s sister Leslie, 25, a lesser known singer, did die. So where do we draw the line? And why are the hoaxes so prevalent?

"I have a theory that it could be a celebrity PR team out there trying to get some press," said Marcella Wilson, 40, of Washington D.C. She’s "ghost tweeted" for people that don’t want to tackle the social network themselves.

At times, trending deaths seem particularly incessant. Rutledge points out that as Whitney Houston’s funeral got under way in Newark, "RIP Madonna" trended. Many placed blame on a Will Smith parody account — the actor does not have his own — that referred to the Material Girl’s career as being dead.

If Twitter is the place to die, so far, heaven looks a lot like Hollywood.



Related coverage:

Bon Jovi not dead: Rumor was Twitter fiction
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