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Grief Iconography between Italians and Americans: A Comparative Study on How Mourning Is Visually Expressed on Social Media

As an innovative way to express grief, social media posts about the deceased have become fairly common. However, few studies have examined commonly posted grief photos. The purpose of the present study was to examine such pictures, as well as the motivations and reactions of those who posted them, a...

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Autores principales: Cupit, Illene Noppe, Sapelli, Paolo, Testoni, Ines
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8301040/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34356721
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs11070104
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author Cupit, Illene Noppe
Sapelli, Paolo
Testoni, Ines
author_facet Cupit, Illene Noppe
Sapelli, Paolo
Testoni, Ines
author_sort Cupit, Illene Noppe
collection PubMed
description As an innovative way to express grief, social media posts about the deceased have become fairly common. However, few studies have examined commonly posted grief photos. The purpose of the present study was to examine such pictures, as well as the motivations and reactions of those who posted them, among Italians and Americans. Surveys were sent to both Italian and US participants. The US group yielded 262 responses (mean age = 22 years; 81% female), and the Italian group yielded 51 (mean age = 32 years; 82% female). Several key issues emerged, such as the need for social media users to receive empathic support from other users, the desire to maintain continuing bonds, the wish to remember the deceased, and the desire to share beauty and symbolic pictures. The images were analyzed using content analysis. Both samples posted photos to remember, and to enhance their posts. A strong preference for pictures with a positive emotional connotation appeared, depicting the deceased in a conjoint appearance with the participant. The results suggest that the imagery used for the expression of grief in social media sites, an “iconography of grief”, is a popular means of expression for grievers across the two cultures.
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spelling pubmed-83010402021-07-24 Grief Iconography between Italians and Americans: A Comparative Study on How Mourning Is Visually Expressed on Social Media Cupit, Illene Noppe Sapelli, Paolo Testoni, Ines Behav Sci (Basel) Article As an innovative way to express grief, social media posts about the deceased have become fairly common. However, few studies have examined commonly posted grief photos. The purpose of the present study was to examine such pictures, as well as the motivations and reactions of those who posted them, among Italians and Americans. Surveys were sent to both Italian and US participants. The US group yielded 262 responses (mean age = 22 years; 81% female), and the Italian group yielded 51 (mean age = 32 years; 82% female). Several key issues emerged, such as the need for social media users to receive empathic support from other users, the desire to maintain continuing bonds, the wish to remember the deceased, and the desire to share beauty and symbolic pictures. The images were analyzed using content analysis. Both samples posted photos to remember, and to enhance their posts. A strong preference for pictures with a positive emotional connotation appeared, depicting the deceased in a conjoint appearance with the participant. The results suggest that the imagery used for the expression of grief in social media sites, an “iconography of grief”, is a popular means of expression for grievers across the two cultures. MDPI 2021-07-20 /pmc/articles/PMC8301040/ /pubmed/34356721 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs11070104 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Cupit, Illene Noppe
Sapelli, Paolo
Testoni, Ines
Grief Iconography between Italians and Americans: A Comparative Study on How Mourning Is Visually Expressed on Social Media
title Grief Iconography between Italians and Americans: A Comparative Study on How Mourning Is Visually Expressed on Social Media
title_full Grief Iconography between Italians and Americans: A Comparative Study on How Mourning Is Visually Expressed on Social Media
title_fullStr Grief Iconography between Italians and Americans: A Comparative Study on How Mourning Is Visually Expressed on Social Media
title_full_unstemmed Grief Iconography between Italians and Americans: A Comparative Study on How Mourning Is Visually Expressed on Social Media
title_short Grief Iconography between Italians and Americans: A Comparative Study on How Mourning Is Visually Expressed on Social Media
title_sort grief iconography between italians and americans: a comparative study on how mourning is visually expressed on social media
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8301040/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34356721
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs11070104
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