LOS ANGELES (LALATE) – Avril Lavigne is not dead from a snowboarding accident in Whistler. Avril Lavigne false death reports today are the latest round of fake celebrity stories being pursued on Twitter. Today’s entry falsely claimed Avigne was on a Whistler snow trail (not even open at that time) with Brody Jenner (who is at the beach this New Year’s weekend, not the mountains).
The fake claims about Avril Lavigne hit as Lavigne debuted her new song. Fans are praising the track on Facebook Sunday.
Since 2009, fake celebrity death reports have become more frequent, more encompassing, and faster spreading. Initially spread via message boards in 2009, such reports spread quicker in 2010 via the popularity of Twitter. But as the fake reports grew, their lack of originality remained unchanged . Whether it’s Nick Jonas in 2009 or Lavigne in 2011, celebrity death reports generally start with a vacation spot, add a fake crash, and usually insert a vehicle like a train, plane, or car.
But at the end of 2010, such reports took a new turn as one person sought to combine archived news video clips together. In late December 2010, one person took two Los Angeles archived news video clips about Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight and created a false but believable report about Tupac’s death. While the trend of combining news video together was novel, it again was spread by Twitter. For viewers that didn’t live in Los Angeles, the videos appeared real, even though they were from different news broadcasts at different times.
When fake celebrity death reports first made news in fall 2009, they struck only teen pop celebrities and rappers. Lil Wayne, Nick Jonas and Miley Cyrus were the most common subjects. By the end of 2010, such reports spread to TV and film actors. And while celebrities from sports and other industries have yet to become victims, today’s round of fake Avril Lavigne reports proves that, whether believable or not, the reports are still dominating our culture via our social networking platforms.
