Death and Digital Media

This volume provides a critical overview of how people mourn, commemorate and interact with the dead through digital media. It maps the historical and shifting landscape of digital death, considering a wide range of social, commercial and institutional responses to technological innovations. The authors examine multiple digital platforms and offer a series of case studies drawn from North America, Europe and Australia. The book delivers fresh insight and analysis from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on anthropology, sociology, science and technology studies, human-computer interaction, and media studies.

Death and Digital Media provides a critical overview of how people mourn, commemorate and interact with the dead through digital media. It maps the historical and shifting landscape of digital death, considering a wide range of social, commercial and institutional responses to technological innovations. The authors examine multiple digital platforms and offer a series of case studies drawn from North America, Europe and Australia. The book delivers fresh insight and analysis from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on anthropology, sociology, science and technology studies, human-computer interaction, and media studies. It is key reading for students and scholars in these disciplines, as well as for professionals working in bereavement support capacities.

Autorentext

Michael Arnold is Associate Professor and Head of Discipline in the History and Philosophy of Science Programme in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Martin Gibbs is Associate Professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems and a member of the Interaction Design Lab (IDL) at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Tamara Kohn is Associate Professor of Anthropology in the School of Social and Political Sciences and Coordinator of Gender Studies in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

James Meese is Lecturer in the School of Communication at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

Bjorn Nansen is Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Klappentext

Death and Digital Media provides a critical overview of how people mourn, commemorate and interact with the dead through digital media. It maps the historical and shifting landscape of digital death, considering a wide range of social, commercial and institutional responses to technological innovations. The authors examine multiple digital platforms and offer a series of case studies drawn from North America, Europe and Australia. The book delivers fresh insight and analysis from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on anthropology, sociology, science and technology studies, human-computer interaction, and media studies. It is key reading for students and scholars in these disciplines, as well as for professionals working in bereavement support capacities.

Zusammenfassung

Death and Digital Media provides a critical overview of how people mourn, commemorate and interact with the dead through digital media. It maps the historical and shifting landscape of digital death, considering a wide range of social, commercial and institutional responses to technological innovations. The authors examine multiple digital platforms and offer a series of case studies drawn from North America, Europe and Australia. The book delivers fresh insight and analysis from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on anthropology, sociology, science and technology studies, human-computer interaction, and media studies. It is key reading for students and scholars in these disciplines, as well as for professionals working in bereavement support capacities.

Inhalt

1. Death and Digital Media: An Introduction 2. Pre-Digital Mediums, Media, and Mediations 3. The Materialities of Gravesites and Websites 4. Death and Social Media: Entanglements of Policy and Practice 5. Mixing Repertoires: Commemoration in Digital Games and Online Worlds 6. The Funeral as a Site of Innovation 7. Looking to the Future of Life after Death Afterword by Elizabeth Hallam