Digital Grieving: Appropriateness, Relationality, and Mourning Loss
Graduate co-author (Beckermann, K.M., Copeland, A.J., Currie-Mueller, J.L., & Jahnl, G.M.). 2016.
Faculty advisor: Dr. Carrie Anne Platt.
Research relating to how students utilize social media in the grieving process remains scarce, but efforts are gaining momentum. Contributing to research efforts, the authors of this paper conducted virtual focus groups with 26 undergraduate students, posing two research questions. Through two stages of coding and model development, we determined commonalities resulting in themes, which explain how students participate in, or share their personal grief through social media. The authors identified several determinants in students’ communication: the strength of the relationship to the deceased or mourning survivor(s) guide the channel selection for their commentary. Students distinctly decide which channels are appropriate or inappropriate to communicate through or participate in mourning. Students pass judgment on whether grief communication is perceived as authentic or inauthentic.
History
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March 2017: Presented at the Central States Communication Regional Conference, Minneapolis, MN.
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September 2017: Published in the Iowa Journal of Communication
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