The blog of the MSN homepage team

Guest post by Matt Ball, MSN UK editor-in-chief (follow on twitter @thisismattball)

This post is about media coverage of Michael Jackson’s death.

I’ve compiled an album that shows:

1. Screenshots of mainstream English language websites I took early this morning - all between 1:30am and 2:30am London time, which was about two to three hours after confirmation of Michael Jackson's death came through. I picked various broadcaster sites, newspaper sites and portal sites to give a flavour of the coverage styles that were used in the hours shortly after the story broke.

2. Photos of the front page of London editions of national newspapers. In some cases we were able to find early editions that did not have the story and later editions that did. While we were working on our own coverage on MSN UK overnight one of my colleagues commented: “Thank your lucky stars you’re not repaginating dozens of pages of a newspaper right now.” Too right (I left print media eight years ago), though I think the papers did very well to turn around their coverage so quickly. The contrast between the early and later editions is stark and impressive.

Take a look at the album:

View Full Album

I’ve picked out a few websites and newspaper editions below and I’ve also added some additional screenshots of our own coverage but I do think it’s worth perusing the full album.

Websites

CNN went for striking and simple:

MSNBC used a slideshow of Jackson images:

MSN.com used what we call a ‘blowout’ on its front page (a wider promotion than is normally used in that slot on the page focusing all the links on one story):

Sky News had a similar set up:

The Sydney Morning Herald was in the minority in its choice of headline:

Here at MSN UK we led with this image and suite of links at that time:

Later in the morning we switched a different image and headline and used the additional links under the image for our other content:

And now our photo editor Ant Bennison has come up with this one (photo fans might like Ant’s blog)

And our full coverage page in MSN Music now looks like this:

London editions of national newspapers

The Guardian before and after:

The Telegraph before and after:

Related links:

Michael Jackson full coverage page on MSN Music

Michael Jackson: a life in pictures

Tributes thread on MSN UK message boards

Posted by Paul

 

Twitter, in case you haven't already discovered, is somewhat similar to instant messaging. It lets users send free text messages known as "tweets" explaining what they are doing, seeing or thinking. These tweets are delivered instantly to their followers.

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Twitip.com has highlighted its top Twitter tools:

TweetDeck aims to evolve the existing functionality of Twitter by taking an abundance of information i.e. Twitter feeds, and breaking it down into more manageable bite sized pieces.
Twhirl is similar to TweetDeck, except it lets you access multiple Twitter accounts directly through the software.
Ping.fm lets you broadcast your tweets to social networking sites such as Windows Live, Facebook and MySpace.
Tweetburner allows you to shorten, send out and track links sent via Twitter.
GroupTweet is ideal for when you want to a tweet a certain group of your followers, friends or family.
Twitter Timer simply sends you reminders through Twitter.
Tweetbeep alerts you whenever someone mentions any keyword you want to follow.
Qwitter lets you know who has ceased following you and which tweet prompted them to do so.
TweetLater allows you to schedule your tweets for a later date/time.

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Posted by Paul

The MSN Homepage has signed up to Twitter. You can follow us by visiting http://twitter.com/msnhome

If you do not have a Twitter account, you can create one quickly and easily by visiting http://twitter.com

We will aim to break the news to you first and then tweet updates as a story develops.

Additionally, we'll direct your attention to exclusives and our most clicked on features.

So if you’ve signed up to the latest micro-blogging phenomenon, or plan to do so, we can keep you updated regularly with the best stories and our most compelling content.

See all MSN channels on Twitter and follow more

From today you can watch the Disaster Emergency Committee’s video appeal for aid in Gaza on MSN Video.

The video has become more than a request for donations, it has also become a news story since the BBC, later joined by Sky News, decided not to broadcast the appeal, citing concerns about editorial independence.

You can leave your views in the comments section on MSN Video or you can do so on this blog post by clicking the Add a comment below.

MSN UK’s coverage of the Middle East is based on the news feeds we receive and display, without editing, from independent providers. You can read the reports from Reuters, the Press Association and ITN in the World News section of the MSN News channel.

No matter how this issue is covered we always receive plenty of feedback from our users.

As usual, we have received comments from users on both sides. And, as usual, each side has suggested we are favouring the other.

Useful web links from Live Search

Gaza appeal:

http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=Gaza+appeal+Disasters+Emergency+Committee+&form=QBRE

Israel:

http://search.live.com/news/results.aspx?q=israel&FORM=BNRE

Other links

BBC’s Mark Thompson explains the corporation’s decision – BBC website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2009/01/bbc_and_the_gaza_appeal.html

Gaza Appeal: Sky's Decision Explained – Sky News website:

http://blogs.news.sky.com/editorsblog/Post:5f6b7e1d-b4d9-46ed-9673-fe5cfb915482

Channel 4 statement on Gaza appeal (appears in a news report) – Channel Four website:

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/bbc+firm+on+gaza+appeal+boycott/2910107

Disasters Emergency Committee website:

http://www.dec.org.uk/index.html