When white smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday, thousands of journalists watched and then scrambled.

Twitter, Facebook and email messages spiked across the globe as billions of Catholics awaited the news to see who would emerge as their new church leader. The night time crowd swelled in Rome, filling all available standing-room space in the square at the Vatican. The Swiss Guards and band marched as transmissions bounced around satellites across the heavens.

Fox News’ Shepard Smith was anchoring in Rome with contributions from the network’s London-based correspondent Amy Kellogg and religion correspondent Lauren Green, who covered the conclave from St. Peter’s Square.  Fox News Latino’s Bryan Llenas offered his reports on the FNL site. On ABC, Diane Sawyer served as event anchor, going to different reporters covering the grounds. CBS News interviewed women who sought a new Pope that was open minded to start the dialog to ordain women to lead churches.

NBC titled its coverage "Election of the Pope" with Brian Williams serving as a master of ceremonies and CNN covered the moments with a "Breaking News" banner and Anderson Cooper talking to Americans wishing for a North American to emerge from the curtains on the balcony.

Unlike past coverage, this moment was full of excitement, if for any reason that this election didn’t follow a death. Pope Benedict offering his resignation made way for this unusual transition.

For non-Catholics, the election of a Pope may not hold a place of reverence. However, its presence on mass media and social media outlets couldn’t be ignored. When Pope Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, finally emerged, millions of tweets, updates, text messages and smart phone video messages were transmitted.

COMEBACK: In 1928, a cartoon short featuring a whistling mouse lit up big screens across the country. Since then, Mickey Mouse has gone on to be the icon of a worldwide entertainment conglomerate. Now, Mickey is coming back full circle with new animated shorts from Disney.

"Over time we thought that maybe Mickey lost some of those impish or innocent qualities, that vitality that people once saw in him. So we decided to bring him back," Walt Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger said recently on CNBC.

The new shorts will feature Mickey in various situations in different landmark cities across the globe.

FAN SUPPORT: Actress Kristin Bell and show creator Rob Thomas launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring "Veronica Mars" to the big screen. The show, canceled in 2007 after two seasons on UPN and a single run on CW, stared Bell as the teenage mystery solver living in Neptune, Calif.

If the team raises $2 million from fans, Warner Bros. will fund an effort to make the movie, according to Thomas. As of Wednesday, the site was within $810,000 of its funding goal.

"Of course, Warner Bros. still owns Veronica Mars and we would need their blessing and cooperation to pull this off. Kristen and I met with the Warner Bros. brass, and they agreed to allow us to take this shot. They were extremely cool about it, as a matter of fact. Their reaction was, if you can show there’s enough fan interest to warrant a movie, we’re on board. So this is it. This is our shot," Thomas wrote.