Mediating and Remediating Death: (Studies in Death, Materiality and the Origin of Time)

From the ritual object which functions as a substitute for the dead - thus acting as a medium for communicating with the ’other world’ - to the representation of death, violence and suffering in media, or the use of online social networks as spaces of commemoration, media of various kinds are central to the communication and performance of death-related socio-cultural practices of individuals, groups and societies. This second volume of the Studies in Death, Materiality and Time series explores the ways in which such practices are subject to ’re-mediation’; that is to say, processes by which well-known practices are re-presented in new ways through various media formats. Presenting rich, interdisciplinary new empirical case studies and fieldwork from the US and Europe, Asia, The Middle East, Australasia and Africa, Mediating and Remediating Death shows how different media forms contribute to the shaping and transformation of various forms of death and commemoration, whether in terms of their range and distribution, their relation to users or their roles in creating and maintaining communities. With its broad and multi-faceted focus on how uses of media can redraw the traditional boundaries of death-related practices and create new cultural realities, this book will appeal to scholars across the social sciences and humanities with interests in ritual and commemoration practices, the sociology and anthropology of death and dying, and cultural and media studies.

Table of Contents:
Mediating and Remediating Death; I: Mediating and Remediating Encounters with Death and Dying; 1: Death in Times of Secularization and Sacralization: The Mediating and Re-Mediating of the Utøya Tragedy in the Norwegian Public Sphere; 2: Spirits of Connection: Séances and Sciences in Paranormal Gettysburg; 3: Infinity in a Spear: Things as Mediations among the Mbuke (Papua New Guinea); 4: The Bereavement Project: Picturing Time and Loss through Photographs in the Landscape of New Media; II: Mediating and Remediating Death in Public Spheres; 5: Ritualising Public Death in the Nordic Media; 6: The Besieged City in the Heart of Europe: Sniper Alley in Sarajevo as Memorial Site on YouTube; 7: Non-Professional Visuals Framing the News Coverage of the Death of Muammar Gaddafi; 8: In-Game and Out-of-Game Mourning: On the Complexity of Grief in Virtual Worlds; 9: A Memorial of Heroes Past: Portraying Tibetan Self-Immolation on Facebook; III: Mediating and Remediating Practices for Death and Dying; 10: Online A-Liveness: A ‘Rhythmanalysis' of Three Illness Blogs made by Rosie Kilburn, Jessica Joy Rees and Eva Markvoort; 11: The Suicidal Mind; 12: Grieving for a (Facebook) Friend: Understanding the Impact of Social Network Sites and the Remediation of the Grieving Process; 13: Death Ends a Life, Not a Relationship: Objects as Media on Children's Graves

About the Author :
Dorthe Refslund Christensen is Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at Aarhus University, Denmark and co-editor of the series Studies in Death, Materiality and Time. She is co-editor of Taming Time Timing Death: Social Technologies and Ritual, the first volume in the Studies in Death, Materiality and Time series. Kjetil Sandvik is Associate Professor in the Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is head of the Cross Media Communication study program and the research project Meaning Across Media: Cross media communication and co-creation.

Review :
'Bringing together an extraordinary breadth of disciplines and case studies, this fascinating volume addresses the mediation and mediatization of death, covering Tibetan self-immolations, the Utoya tragedy, Sarajevo and Gaddafi's public death. An engaging and valuable contribution to death and media studies alike.' Hannah Rumble, University of Aberdeen, UK 'Mediating and Remediating Death is a significant contribution to the broadly sociological literature on death. With its unusual focus on media and materials, its sophisticated take on media, and its dedication to locate death socially, culturally and politically, it will be an important source for scholars and students in the area of death studies.' Arnar Arnason, University of Aberdeen, UK 'I have been waiting for a book that takes the study of death into a complete media theory framework. This book has arrived. Mediating and Remediating Death brings together diverse and fascinating original case studies with a coherence, depth, and clarity rarely achieved in a many-authored book.' Margaret Gibson, Griffith University, Australia 'Mediating and Remediating Death is pertinent for those established in the fields of death, media and sociological studies not just for research purposes but for the provision of prime material as set readings for undergraduate and postgraduate modules which are guaranteed to stimulate debate, passion and opinion.' Information, Communication and Society