That's very possible, even likely. Though we've been able to easily get news about celebrity deaths pretty quickly for 5-10 years now, in terms of the interwebs and smart phones... but I do feel like this year is a bit... out of the ordinary, a lot of celebrities who did a lot of good for this world, were pioneers, I don't remember having nearly as many issues in 2014 or 2015 with celebrity deaths, to be fair.
And let's toss in Aleppo for good measure. =/