It may seem an impossible notion that in the age of potentially infinite media sources that any one figure could dominate digital media. Yet the saga of Charlie Sheen reveals that it is indeed still possible to saturate the media in the modern era. Sheen utilized Twitter, ustream, traditional media interviews, YouTube and other sources to the point that, by his own intention or not, some reference to him was almost unavoidable on major and minor websites. Sheen was so pervasive that it was seen fit to develop an extension titled “Tinted Sheen” with the sole purpose of censoring any mention of Charlie Sheen from the Internet. Rare is the figure that those without any interest in the subject cannot avoid mention of on the Internet, but Charlie Sheen, by virtue of media whoring and the social nature of the current web, became just such a figure. Even with increasingly niche news offerings allowing news consumers to custom tailor their news experience, it is still possible for a news story to practically dominate the media and become a universal “big story.” In more recent times, the death of Osama bin Laden also accomplished such a feat due to the sheer import of the event, revealing there to be a multitude of directions by which a story can dominate collective mindshare.
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