Uses of media in everyday practices of grief among bereaved parents

TY - CONF

T1 - Uses of media in everyday practices of grief among bereaved parents

AU - Sandvik, Kjetil

AU - Christensen, Dorthe Refslund

N1 - Paper i panelet Everyday digital media use in a life course perspective

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - Ubiquitous media is not just a matter of (digital) media being everywhere and embedded in various objects (clothing, household hardware, buildings…). Using the practices of bereavement and commemoration as displayed by parents on children’s graves and online memorial sites as a case, this paper claims that ubiquitous media as a concept also relates to processes of mediatization (Cf. Hjarvard 2008, Lundbye 2009, Hepp 2013); to the ‘thingification of media’ (Lash & Lury 2007) and to everyday practices through which we (re)appropriate and change existing media ‘to suit our needs’ (Cf. Jensen 2010). Based on observation studies and qualitative content analyses of both children’s graves and online memory profiles (Christensen & Sandvik 2013, 2014a), this paper demonstrates how bereaved parents perform practices on children’s graves and through other media practices such as online memorial sites continues the bonds (Cf. Walter 1999) to the dead child so that the bereaved can re-integrate the dead into their everyday life. This perspective implies that grieving is not allocated to a specific period of time (a time of mourning) but that grieving and the uses of social technologies like media related to it are embedded in everyday life practices. Here, small-scale (compared to institutionalized periods of mourning) ritualizations and repetitions are central as are the convergence of deathstyle and lifestyle since the ritual responses to death are not outside ordinary life. This paper presents insights into the uses of media in everyday practices of grief and commemoration primarily related to stillborns and the death of newly born and young people. The complexity of everyday practices of grief vouches for developing a corresponding complex media concept in which media characteristics and affordances (the functionalities that are specifically fit for a certain use) may be understood as a matter of dimensions, as complex systems of communication whether we see this in the use of objects on children’s graves embedded with media affordances (Christensen & Sandvik 2014a) or social media used as communicational tools for creating online memorial profiles (Christensen & Sandvik 2013). Inspired by multidimensional concepts of media and communication (e.g. Meyrowitz 1973 and Jensen 2010), concepts are developed that can describe the way in which media and media uses are entwined in the everyday practices but not solely in a one-way cause-and-effect way implying that media produce new practices. The paper argues that at the same time we can observe how people turn objects into media or create new ways of using existing media employing them as new tools for communicating with or about the dead (see Jensen 2010, Christensen & Sandvik 2014a; 2014b). What is suggested in the concluding part of this paper is a method and an analytical apparatus for studying how existing or invented media enable, facilitate and shape practices related to death and loss and at the same time how existing media are appropriated and modified to fit the need of these practices. References: Christensen, D.R. & Sandvik, K. (2014a). “Death ends a life, not a relationship. Obejcts as media on children’s graves”, in: Christensen, D.R. and Sandvik, K. (eds.). Mediation and Remediating Death, Surrey: Ashgate Christensen, D.R. & Sandvik, K. (2014b). “Introduction”, in: Christensen, D.R. and Sandvik, K. (eds.). Mediation and Remediating Death, Surrey: Ashgate Christensen, D.R. & Sandvik, K. (2013). “Sharing Death. Conceptions of Time at a Danish Online Memorial Site”, in: Christensen, D.R. and Willerslev, R. (eds.). Taming Time, Timing Death: Social Technologies and Ritual, Surrey: Ashgate Hepp, A. 2013. Cultures of Mediatization. Cambridge: Polity Press Hjarvard, S. (2008). “The Mediatization of religion. A theory of the media as agents of religious change”, in: Hjarvard, S. (ed.). Northern Lights, vol. 6, The Mediatization of Religion. London: Intellect Books Jensen, K.B. (2010). Media Convergence. The three degrees of network, mass, and interpersonal communication, London & New York: Routledge Lash, S. and Lury, C. (2007). Global Culture Industry, Cambridge: Polity Press. Livingstone, S. (2009). “On the mediation of everything”, in: Journal of Communication 59 (1) Lundby, K. (2009). Mediatization: Concepts, Changes, Consequences, New York: Peter Lang Meyrowitz, J. (1973). “Images of Media: Hidden Ferment – and Harmony – in the Field”, in: Journal of Communication 43 (3) Walter, T. (1999). On Bereavement: The Culture of Grief. Maidenhead & Philadelphia: Open University Press

AB - Ubiquitous media is not just a matter of (digital) media being everywhere and embedded in various objects (clothing, household hardware, buildings…). Using the practices of bereavement and commemoration as displayed by parents on children’s graves and online memorial sites as a case, this paper claims that ubiquitous media as a concept also relates to processes of mediatization (Cf. Hjarvard 2008, Lundbye 2009, Hepp 2013); to the ‘thingification of media’ (Lash & Lury 2007) and to everyday practices through which we (re)appropriate and change existing media ‘to suit our needs’ (Cf. Jensen 2010). Based on observation studies and qualitative content analyses of both children’s graves and online memory profiles (Christensen & Sandvik 2013, 2014a), this paper demonstrates how bereaved parents perform practices on children’s graves and through other media practices such as online memorial sites continues the bonds (Cf. Walter 1999) to the dead child so that the bereaved can re-integrate the dead into their everyday life. This perspective implies that grieving is not allocated to a specific period of time (a time of mourning) but that grieving and the uses of social technologies like media related to it are embedded in everyday life practices. Here, small-scale (compared to institutionalized periods of mourning) ritualizations and repetitions are central as are the convergence of deathstyle and lifestyle since the ritual responses to death are not outside ordinary life. This paper presents insights into the uses of media in everyday practices of grief and commemoration primarily related to stillborns and the death of newly born and young people. The complexity of everyday practices of grief vouches for developing a corresponding complex media concept in which media characteristics and affordances (the functionalities that are specifically fit for a certain use) may be understood as a matter of dimensions, as complex systems of communication whether we see this in the use of objects on children’s graves embedded with media affordances (Christensen & Sandvik 2014a) or social media used as communicational tools for creating online memorial profiles (Christensen & Sandvik 2013). Inspired by multidimensional concepts of media and communication (e.g. Meyrowitz 1973 and Jensen 2010), concepts are developed that can describe the way in which media and media uses are entwined in the everyday practices but not solely in a one-way cause-and-effect way implying that media produce new practices. The paper argues that at the same time we can observe how people turn objects into media or create new ways of using existing media employing them as new tools for communicating with or about the dead (see Jensen 2010, Christensen & Sandvik 2014a; 2014b). What is suggested in the concluding part of this paper is a method and an analytical apparatus for studying how existing or invented media enable, facilitate and shape practices related to death and loss and at the same time how existing media are appropriated and modified to fit the need of these practices. References: Christensen, D.R. & Sandvik, K. (2014a). “Death ends a life, not a relationship. Obejcts as media on children’s graves”, in: Christensen, D.R. and Sandvik, K. (eds.). Mediation and Remediating Death, Surrey: Ashgate Christensen, D.R. & Sandvik, K. (2014b). “Introduction”, in: Christensen, D.R. and Sandvik, K. (eds.). Mediation and Remediating Death, Surrey: Ashgate Christensen, D.R. & Sandvik, K. (2013). “Sharing Death. Conceptions of Time at a Danish Online Memorial Site”, in: Christensen, D.R. and Willerslev, R. (eds.). Taming Time, Timing Death: Social Technologies and Ritual, Surrey: Ashgate Hepp, A. 2013. Cultures of Mediatization. Cambridge: Polity Press Hjarvard, S. (2008). “The Mediatization of religion. A theory of the media as agents of religious change”, in: Hjarvard, S. (ed.). Northern Lights, vol. 6, The Mediatization of Religion. London: Intellect Books Jensen, K.B. (2010). Media Convergence. The three degrees of network, mass, and interpersonal communication, London & New York: Routledge Lash, S. and Lury, C. (2007). Global Culture Industry, Cambridge: Polity Press. Livingstone, S. (2009). “On the mediation of everything”, in: Journal of Communication 59 (1) Lundby, K. (2009). Mediatization: Concepts, Changes, Consequences, New York: Peter Lang Meyrowitz, J. (1973). “Images of Media: Hidden Ferment – and Harmony – in the Field”, in: Journal of Communication 43 (3) Walter, T. (1999). On Bereavement: The Culture of Grief. Maidenhead & Philadelphia: Open University Press

M3 - Paper

T2 - ECREA

Y2 - 9 November 2016 through 12 November 2016

ER -