Mourning network: ethnography and new social practices in on-line communities Dr. Alessandra Micalizzi IULM University – Communication Dept EASA – Media Anthropology Workshop Media Practices and cultural production, Barcelona 6-7 november 2008

Start point in Theory Social context: Expulsion of death from everyday life conversations (life story) obscene-zation of death on traditional media (mediated- narrations)  Pornography of death (Gorer)

The Net as a social context The Net – as socio techno artefact - is: A narrative technology writing about self and reading after time (reflexive-ness Bruner) An interactive technology interacting with other netusers exchanging experiences expose personal story to the glance of other surfers A memory technology storing contents consulting archives of other life-stories

The research: goals Could the Net be considered as a new social context where people can share personal experience of loss and mourning? In the case of blogs and virtual communities we would know: Motivations and expectations Practices of uses Functions (of the single digital environment and of the Net)

Methodology Qualitative analysis of the content (phase I): contextual textual Web-overt observations of specific interactions in digital environments (forum-blog) ‏ interviews with (phase II): Web-users of “memorial” websites Net-users of web communities (forum and blogs) about loss and mourning Administrators, facilitators Opening of a blog about research

Methodology More in dept: interview Recit de vie expectation and reason why Use relational dynamics (management of the time spent in these spaces, writing, reading etc) ‏ Functions of the net contextualization of the on-line experience Over observation First contact of cultural mediator (blogger or moderator) Introductions to the community (as a researcher) Interactions and observations

Sample Observations and content analysis : 15 blogs 17 “memorial” websites (11 virtual cemeteries) ‏ 6 forums (total 250 websites) Interviews : 32 net-users of forums 15 bloggers 12 memorial websites users (3 administrators) ‏

Recruitments and time Content analysis: Search with key-words Interviews: contact (through cultural mediator) ‏ Reporting or auto-reporting on my blog Period: February- July 2007

The results 1. Motivations and expectations

Supported by the Net: first attempt We explore by the content analysis and the interviews the reason why of the first access: Why do they enter on the web? Personal answer to the isolation percieved by the bereaved person from the social context (out of the Net): Desired and searched (pro-active attitude) suffered (passive attitude)

Supported by the Net: first attempt Searching for a context where to feel protected: Protection of the screen Meeting in a familiar environment Filter for personal exposition of the self identity

Supported by the Net: first attempt Searching for a “place” where to share personal experience: Telling personal mourning’s story Comparing feelings Not feel the only one

How they arrived to… In the case of web community: By a key word search Falling down (as they usually say) on the link There is a personal (psychological) need but not a specific project In the case of weblog: generally as a second step after the attending of other kind of digital environment (especially forum and chat) Guided by specific digital skills

…With which expectations “just do it” All the interviewees – both blogger of net-users of communities - declared that: They hadn’t any peculiar expectation on using these environments SO They are very surprised by the pseudo therapeutic effects of the partecipations They would just to feel again GOOD

The results 2. Blogs and web communities

Web-community partecipation 5 steps: 1. Setting 2. Introduction 3. Participation 4. Empowerment 5. Exit from the community Abandonment Lurking Mature exit

Weblog partecipation Setting Max writing interaction Reducing writing activity Exit Abandonment Changing the argument lurking

Functions Containing Therapeutic Sharing Memory Private sphere Public sphere

Conclusions 3. The answer to our question

Yes or Not? We start from this question: Could the Net be considered as a new social context where people can share personal experience of loss and mourning? We think we can answer affirmatively : The Net is a new socio-anthropological context where give a “space” to the experience of loss

The macro-functions of the Net 4 functions: Social function Psychological function Pedagogical function Anthropological function

…and a meta function The need of presence (Di Fraia, 2007): «The fear the loss of presence (…) is the ancestral fear that always accompanies humanity(…) Behind the click that allows us to publish our thoughts, behind such a beautiful but also banal gesture, there is, conscious or not, our desire to counteract our destiny; that is, to leave a visible sign on this Earth; to produce a sign that can be alive, that could survive for longer than us».