“Gone too soon”: did Twitter grieve for Michael Jackson?
| Pages | 462-478 |
| Published date | 14 June 2013 |
| Date | 14 June 2013 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-05-2012-0082 |
| Author | Chei Sian Lee,Dion Hoe‐Lian Goh |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
“Gone too soon”: did Twitter
grieve for Michael Jackson?
Chei Sian Lee and Dion Hoe-Lian Goh
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore
Abstract
Purpose – Grieving resulting from death is a painful process and individuals invariably seek
support to help them through this difficult period. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role
microblogs play in providing social support following the death of a public figure, Michael Jackson,
“the King of Pop”.
Design/methodology/approach – In total, 50,000 tweets from the first 12 days after Jackson’s
death were harvested from Twitter. A content analysis using a coding instrument characterizing a set
of social support categories was conducted. Categories not related to social support were also
inductively constructed and applied to the tweets.
Findings – Twitter was primarily used for providing informational support, followed by emotional
support. Surprisingly, categories not normally associated with grieving, such as spreading of rumours,
expressions of hatred, and spam, also occupied a large proportion of tweets.
Practical implications – Results suggest that microblogging has the potential to facilitate the
grieving process and in some aspects of social support. However, information quality could be an issue
that calls for better information management tools.
Originality/value – There has been little work done in examining microblogs as platforms for
grieving in general, and more specifically, for providing social support during bereavement. The
present research is timely, as we seek to understand the role microblogs play in the grieving process.
Keywords Blogs, Social networking sites, Celebrities,Death, Microblogs, Twitter, MichaelJackson,
Grieving, Socialsupport, Content analysis
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The sense of loss resulting from the death of a loved one or someone familiar is painful
and evokes a variety of emotions in individuals, including sadness, shock, anger and
guilt (Kubler-Ross, 1969). While the grief experience varies among individuals
(Bonanno and Kaltman, 2001), it is nevertheless stressful and emotional, and
invariably, people seek social support to help them through this difficult process (Bath,
2009). Studies have demonstrated the importance of social support in periods of grief.
For example, a longitudinal study of widows reported that those with greater social
support were less depressed than those with lower levels of social support. Likewise,
grievers themselves acknowledge the importance of social support from family, friends
and colleagues in coping with the loss (Di Giulio, 1995). For the purposes of this paper,
social support is defined as both tangible and intangible resources that individuals can
tap into through their relationships with others (Cohen and Hoberman, 1983).
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
This work was supported by Nanyang Technological University Academic Research Fund
Program (Tier 1), Grant No. 59/09.
OIR
37,3
462
Received 19 November 2011
First revision approved
17 May 2012
Online Information Review
Vol. 37 No. 3, 2013
pp. 462-478
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-05-2012-0082
Although social support has traditionally been provided face-to-face, the popularity
of the web as a medium for interaction has resulted in new avenues where people can
seek help for grieving. Social support can be in the form of websites, discussion groups,
or more recently, via social computing applications such as blogs and social
networking services. Examples include dedicated bereavement sites such as web
memorials, or those created spontaneously in response to a death, such as a Facebook
page mourning the loss of Michael Jackson. Regardless of the form they take, online
social support platforms provide a means for people to express grief, to share similar
experiences and information with others, to obtain help from others, in some instances,
for the bereaved to help others as well (Brennan, 2008; Dadich, 2009). In so doing, a
bridge is built between the bereaved individual and the larger community of mourners,
potentially alleviating the pain associated with the loss (Massimi and Baecker, 2010).
The microblog is a recent addition to the online platforms for bereavement.
Microblogs allow users to post messages in the form of brief comments to one’s social
network. An example is Twitter, the most popular microblogging service to date. Users
can post a message (tweet) of up to 140 characters to their Twitter page as well as
distribute it to their social network. The enforced brevity of microblog postings differs
from other platforms such as standard blogs, social networking services and
discussion forums. Specifically it prevents people from writing long messages but at
the same time, it makes postings easier to create and consume ( Jansen et al., 2009), thus
potentially increasing the reach and volume of content.
The characteristics of microblogs make them unique among communication
platforms, and therefore they have the potential to affect the grieving process.
However, to the best of our knowledge, there has been little empirical work done in
examining microblogs as platforms for social support in general, and more specifically,
for bereavement. In previous work we examined through content analysis the
categories and quality of messages posted on Twitter in response to the death of a
public figure (Goh and Lee, 2011), but did not focus on the types of social support
rendered. There are also at best anecdotal accounts of the use of Twitter by healthcare
practitioners and patients to share health-related information (e.g. Hawn, 2009).
Therefore, given the importance of online social support as discussed earlier, the
present research is timely as we seek to understand the role microblogs play in the
grieving process. In our work we perform a content analysis of Twitter tweets in
response to the death of a public figure: Michael Jackson, the “King of Pop”. Jackson
was selected for this study as he was arguably one of the most famous people known
all over the world. This ensured that a large number of tweets representing diverse
expressions from different segments of the population could be harvested and
analysed.
Related work
Grieving
People inevitably experience grief following the death of a close friend, a relative or a
loved one (Bonanno and Kaltman, 2001). In many instances grieving is private and
usually restricted to members of the bereaved family and perhaps close friends and
associates. However, public grieving may occur in connection with the death of
celebrities, government officials, other well-known individuals, and even among
strangers who somehow share a common bond with the community (Brennan, 2008).
“Gone too soon”
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