How News of Junior Seau’s Death Spread on Twitter

May 3rd, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

NFL legend Junior Seau was found dead at his Southern California home on Wednesday. He was 43 years old and mortally wounded by a gunshot to the chest when his girlfriend discovered him unconscious, according to reports.

Seau’s death is being investigated as a possible suicide. He was a six-time All Pro and made 12 straight Pro Bowls. He led his hometown San Diego Chargers to a Super Bowl appearance in 1995, and starred at the University of Southern California.

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Seau’s on-field excellence, coupled with his reputation as a kind, friendly and compassionate man, led to an outpouring of grief, anger and remembrance on Twitter before his death had even been widely reported by news media.

Fans offered condolences, current players marked his greatness and former players shared memories. Reporters posted photos, videos and news accounts.

Social analytics firm Topsy tracked how the Twittersphere followed the Seau story. The first mention of his possible death, Topsy says, came from user @ceceliajonas15, who posted this message at 10:13 a.m., PST:

I hope its not true that Junior Seau committed suicide. RIP

— Cecelia noel (@ceceliajonas15) May 2, 2012

Over the next 40 minutes or so, a few more Seau-related tweets trickled out. The first one to spread widely, however, came from @HarveyLevinTMZ, who at 10:52 a.m. posted this message:

There are cops at Junior Seau’s home… we are told something really bad happened.More to come…

— Harvey Levin(@HarveyLevinTMZ) May 2, 2012

The Topsy chart below shows how frequently Twitter users mentioned topics related to Seau’s death immediately before and during the hours following that first tweet:

In the 24 hours following the reports of Seau’s death Wednesday, more than than 421,000 tweets mentioned the news, according to Topsy. As rumors spread that Seau may have committed suicide, then reports surfaced he died of a gunshot wound, then police confirmed they were investigating his death as a potential suicide, Twitter mentions per minute about the topics surged.

This chart shows how Twitter users discussed the reported causes of Seau’s death. Note how TMZ’s Harvey Levin sent a tweet which opened the floodgates:

How did you learn about Junior Seau? Did you follow the story on Twitter as it developed? Let us know in the comments.