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<p>In an age of social and digital media, users’ engagements with (social) media related to death, dying and mourning vary widely across different social and cultural contexts and changing platforms. Based on the discussion of selected examples, I illustrate how users’ social media engagements related to death, dying and mourning vary, depending on the narrative positions that sharers take up as <italic>tellers</italic>, <italic>co-tellers</italic> or <italic>witnesses</italic> to shared stories. As I will argue, the potential and limits of such engagements can be better understood in the context of three over-arching, dynamic modes of practices of hyper-mourning, namely <italic>entrepreneurial, connective</italic> and <italic>activist</italic>. These are associated with distinct types of <italic>affective positions</italic> for sharers, audiences and displays of affect, forming the basis for projecting participants’ identity and affective claims. The article shows how the way we die and mourn is extended as much as limited by social and digital media story affordances and norms.</p>
</abstract>

In an age of social and digital media, users’ engagements with (social) media related to death, dying and mourning vary widely across different social and cultural contexts and changing platforms. Based on the discussion of selected examples, I illustrate how users’ social media engagements related to death, dying and mourning vary, depending on the narrative positions that sharers take up as tellers, co-tellers or witnesses to shared stories. As I will argue, the potential and limits of such engagements can be better understood in the context of three over-arching, dynamic modes of practices of hyper-mourning, namely entrepreneurial, connective and activist. These are associated with distinct types of affective positions for sharers, audiences and displays of affect, forming the basis for projecting participants’ identity and affective claims. The article shows how the way we die and mourn is extended as much as limited by social and digital media story affordances and norms.

Affective positioning in hyper-mourning: sharers as tellers, co-tellers and witnesses

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This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

In an age of social and digital media, users’ engagements with (social) media related to death, dying and mourning vary widely across different social and...

Affective positioning in hyper-mourning: sharers as tellers, co-tellers and witnesses

Published Online: Jul 04, 2022

Page range: 1 - 12

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/tjcp-2022-0005

Keywords
digital death, online memorialisation, hyper-mourning, small stories, affective positioning

© 2022 Korina Giaxoglou, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Affective positioning in hyper-mourning: sharers as tellers, co-tellers and witnesses

Published Online: Jul 04, 2022

Page range: 1 - 12

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/tjcp-2022-0005

Keywordsdigital death, online memorialisation, hyper-mourning, small stories, affective positioning

© 2022 Korina Giaxoglou, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
digital death, online memorialisation, hyper-mourning, small stories, affective positioning