Beyond physical boundaries? Platformed grief, algorithmic governance, and the co-construction of mourning in the social media era
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22422014 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Chunfa Zhou (Zhejiang Normal University, corresponding author), C-H Zhou (0000-0003-4130-0627, Zhejiang Normal University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-14 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-17 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Mortality (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1357-6275 • E-ISSN: 1469-9885 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13576275.2026.2705952 |
| OpenAlex | W7169671654 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 39 |
This study examines the digital transformation of collective mourning through a 48-month mixed-methods investigation combining digital ethnography, in-depth interviews (n = 25), computational sentiment analysis, and comparative case study methodology. Drawing on continuing bonds theory, mediatisation theory, and critical platform studies, it explores how digital platforms reconfigure—rather than displace—established mourning rituals. The empirical focus encompasses the online memorial centred on Dr Li Wenliang, the Wuhan physician whose suppressed COVID-19 warnings and death catalysed one of the most significant spontaneous mourning events in Chinese social media history, alongside longitudinal data from the Memorial Hall platform. Countering narratives of digital rupture, the findings advance a co-constructive account in which online and offline mourning practices are mutually constitutive within shared socio-technical and political fields. Three mechanisms—narrative aggregation, temporal layering, and recursive algorithmic circulation—are identified as central to the construction of digital collective memory. What distinguishes platformed grief analytically is not the transcendence of traditional constraints but its production through algorithmic governance under commercial and, in the Chinese context, state-mediated conditions. Critical tensions surrounding platform commodification, posthumous data rights, and censorship are examined, with implications for platform design and regulatory policy.
Censorship · Digital media · Digital Revolution · Focus (optics) · Grief · Narrative · Politics · Social media · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · COVID-19 Digital Contact Tracing · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
Continuing Bonds
Content Analysis
The Platform Society
HashtagActivism
Continuing Bonds in Bereavement
Custodians of the Internet
New mourners, old mourners
The Relevance of Algorithms
“There Isn't Wifi in Heaven!” Negotiating Visibility on Facebook Memorial Pages
Purposeful Sampling for Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis in Mixed Method Implementation Research
The Mediatization of Culture and Society
The social power of algorithms
Affective publics and structures of storytelling
Digital Tools for Qualitative Research
Digital Souls
Griefbots, Deadbots, Postmortem Avatars
Death and Dying in Contemporary Japan
Social media and visual framing of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine
You Don't De-Friend the Dead
The Digital Remains
Beyond the Grave
By sharing our loss, we fight
Spectacular Death”—Proposing a New Fifth Phase to Philippe Ariès’s Admirable History of Death
Using thematic analysis in psychology
This is China’s Wailing Wall
Does the Internet Change How We Die and Mourn? Overview and Analysis
Of Other Spaces
Existential media
Algorithmic content moderation
An ethical framework for the digital afterlife industry
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |