“There’s still this residual . . . instinct to think ‘Oh, it’s just TMZ, let’s wait for the Associated Press or the New York Times or the Los Angeles Times before we can say it’s true,’” said press critic and journalist Kurt Anderson. “I don’t think in, say, five years, that this will be the case.”

For the next two weeks, the death of the self‐proclaimed King of Pop would dominate the news industry. But it would also provide stark evidence of the rapidly changing media world we all live in.