Together We Remember
Using Topic Modeling and Semantic Networks to Study Obituaries and Collective Memories of Contemporary United States
Datos Bibliográficos
| ID | 13629698 |
|---|---|
| Autores | Haojian Li (0009-0008-9999-5015, University of California), Chengfang Wang (Renmin University of China), Ping Hu (0009-0008-2583-3339, Renmin University of China, autor de correspondencia) |
| Año | 2025 |
| Páginas | 302228251407444-302228251407444 |
| Fecha de publicación | 2025-12-06 |
| Peer Reviewed | Sí |
| Open Access | Sí |
| Tipo | ARTICLE |
| Revista | OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying (JOURNAL) |
| Identificadores de la revista | ISSN: 0030-2228 • E-ISSN: 1541-3764 |
| Editorial | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00302228251407444 |
| PMID | 41352759 |
| OpenAlex | W4417086328 |
| Idioma | EN |
| Referencias citadas | 60 |
Obituaries have long served as an important source in recording memories and social values in the United States. However, prior research has focused primarily on celebrities or specific groups, often overlooking the narratives of ordinary citizens and neglecting broader discussions of their collective memories. This study addresses these gaps by applying large-scale data analysis and computational methods. We collected 39,449 obituaries from 2022-2023 and employed BERTopic topic modeling along with semantic network analysis to identify shared latent themes across individual obituaries. The findings suggest that, compared with celebrity obituaries, those of ordinary people are less scripted and more authentic in representing life details, yet still reveal identifiable latent "master narratives." Salient themes include family relationships, religion, military service, and alumni identity, alongside a noticeable shift toward portraying a middle-class ideal of life. Overall, this study contributes new insights to obituary research and introduces a novel framework for examining collective memory through large-scale commemorative texts
Collective memory · Latent semantic analysis · Narrative · Obituary · Salient · Social media · Social network analysis · Topic model · Computational and Text Analysis Methods · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Mental Health via Writing
Media Events
How Societies Remember
Social Network Analysis
Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) and topic modeling
Remembering in Conversations
Narrative and the Cultural Psychology of Identity
Collective memory
The Large‐Scale Structure of Semantic Networks
Collective Memory from a Psychological Perspective
Exploring the Space of Topic Coherence Measures
Media Events
A socio-cultural understanding of death
“Privacy” in Semantic Networks on Chinese Social Media
Higher Education and Social Class
Higher Education, Social Class and Social Mobility
Family
On Collective Memory
The influence of religion on death anxiety and death acceptance
The religious correlates of death anxiety
An analysis of obituaries in staff magazines
The Final Fight
Obituaries Online
Remembering the Dead
Assessing Cultural Differences in Translations
Precarious success and the conspiracy of reflexivity
Your story is our story
Why memory's work on journalism does not reflect journalism's work on memory
A cultural discourse analysis of obituaries in China
From epitaph to obituary
Collective memory
The centrality of groups and classes
Obituaries in American Culture
The Obituary as Collective Memory
Convergence
(Re)writing history
Of Love and Hate
Towards a psychology of collective memory
Obituary, gender, and posthumous fame
The last judgement
Family Interaction, Social Cognition and Children's Subsequent Relations with Peers at Kindergarten
Collective Memory and Forgetting
Habitus Transformation and Hidden Injuries
A Theory of Cultural Value Orientations
The Surprising Predictable Decline of Religion in the United States
A Semantic Network Analysis of the International Communication Association
| Velocidad de citación | historical |
|---|---|
| Altamente citado | No |