Grief Policing

As social media platforms become a larger part of sharing life, they have by necessity become a part of sharing death. In life, pop culture fans can have strong, one-sided, mediated relationships with celebrities. Yet when fans of departed celebrities express their grief in public comment threads, conversations consistently result in disagreements about how to grieve. These disagreements have been broadly labeled “grief policing.” We read and analyzed tens of thousands of public Facebook comments responding to the deaths of Alan Rickman, David Bowie, and Prince. Our findings explain how commenters may be importing norms from other contexts when comment threads consist of transient interactions that make norm formation difficult. This study gives us a better understanding of what social norms might have to do with people being uncivil on the Internet. Approaching online incivility through a lens of conflicting social norm enforcement may help improve public discourse online.

Publications

1. CSCW

   "Control your emotions, Potter": An Analysis of Grief Policing on Facebook in Response to Celebrity Death Katie Z. Gach, Casey Fiesler, and Jed R. Brubaker
   Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 1, CSCW: Article 47

   • Abstract
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   • Reference
   • BibTeX
   • DOI: 10.1145/3134682
   Katie Z. Gach, Casey Fiesler, and Jed R. Brubaker. 2017. "Control your emotions, Potter": An Analysis of Grief Policing on Facebook in Response to Celebrity Death. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 1, CSCW: Article 47. https://doi.org/10.1145/3134682

   @article{Gach2017,
     author = {Gach, Katie Z. and Fiesler, Casey and Brubaker, Jed R.},
     journal = {Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction},
     volume = {1},
     number = {CSCW},
     pages = {Article 47},
     tags = {grief-policing-cscw2018, death-sns},
     doi = {10.1145/3134682},
     title = {{"Control your emotions, Potter": An Analysis of Grief Policing on Facebook in Response to Celebrity Death}},
     year = {2017}
   }
   

   As social media platforms become a larger part of sharing life, they have by necessity become a part of sharing death. In life, pop culture fans can have parasocial (one-sided, mediated) relationships with celebrities. Yet when fans of departed celebrities express their grief in public comment threads, conversations often result in disagreements about how to grieve. These disagreements consistently appear in response to the deaths of public figures, and have been broadly labeled "grief policing." We performed a thematic analysis of public Facebook comments responding to the deaths of Alan Rickman, David Bowie, and Prince. Our findings describe prominent grief policing practices and explain how commenters may be importing norms from other contexts when shared spaces consist of transient interactions that make norm formation difficult. Our findings contribute to a broader understanding of how conflicting norms affect discourse in transient online spaces. Approaching online incivility through a lens of conflicting social norm enforcement may open doors for improvements in public discourse online.

Blog

• "Control Your Emotions, Potter": An Analysis of Grief Policing on Facebook in Response to Celebrity Death Katie Gach · September 16, 2018

Press

• Stories of grief — and hope — pour out on Twitter after suicides The Boston Globe · June 14, 2018
• ‘Grief Policing’ After Celebrity Deaths BYU Radio · Julie Rose · January 4, 2018
• When celebrities die, 'grief policing' abounds, social media gets toxic CU Boulder Today · Lisa Marshall · December 6, 2017