Last week was a very big news week. The death of Michael Jackson dominated media reporting and continues to stay in the limelight as further details surrounding his death, the fate of his children, the bun-fight over his estate and how his life will be celebrated emerge. However, in the wake (if you'll pardon the pun) of Jackson's death I wanted to look at what happened that day.

Jackson's death seemed to have been reported with a pretty high degree of accuracy. Save for some dodgy details surrounding a false autopsy report being "leaked" (coming from a British tabloid - there's a surprise!) most of what we've read has been consistent and backed up with good first level sources such as family members, close associates and the like. But last Thursday, another death was falsely reported.

Actor Jeff Goldblum, it was reported, fell to his death while filming his latest movie in New Zealand. This was backed up by a "local police report" and within minutes Twitter was completely wrapped up in the wave of incredibility. It turned out that Goldblum's death was completely false. It came from a random news generator where people put a celebrity's name in and a false death report is generated. A news agency saw the "story" and reported it. Within a very short time, it was a "fact" and was dominating Twitter. It was even reported on local breakfast TV in Australia (well done Richard Wilkins and The Today Show on checking the story out before reporting).

[Edit] I just saw this a few minutes after posting - Goldblum responds to his own death

Here's my point (you knew it was coming) - just because lots of people say something it doesn't make it true. Tools like twitter make it very easy to get a crowd to repeat a pice of information, giving it credibility by numbers. I suggest that news breaking on Twitter is probably less reliable than reporting in the mainstream media (The Today Show being an exception in this case).

While members of the media can, and ought to use, social media as a source of stories they shouldn't rely on them as a source of anything other than leads. The requirement to do proper fact checking still remains and important part of the news cycle.