Postmortem memory of public figures in news and social media.

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  • Author(s): West R;West R;West R; Leskovec J; Leskovec J; Potts C; Potts C
  • Source:
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America [Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A] 2021 Sep 21; Vol. 118 (38).
  • Publication Type:
    Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Language:
    English
  • Additional Information
    • Source:
      Publisher: National Academy of Sciences Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 7505876 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1091-6490 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00278424 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Subsets: MEDLINE
    • Publication Information:
      Original Publication: Washington, DC : National Academy of Sciences
    • Subject Terms:
      Social Identification*; Mass Media/*trends ; Social Media/*trends; Communication ; Humans ; Mass Gatherings ; Memory ; Sociological Factors
    • Abstract:
      Deceased public figures are often said to live on in collective memory. We quantify this phenomenon by tracking mentions of 2,362 public figures in English-language online news and social media (Twitter) 1 y before and after death. We measure the sharp spike and rapid decay of attention following death and model collective memory as a composition of communicative and cultural memory. Clustering reveals four patterns of postmortem memory, and regression analysis shows that boosts in media attention are largest for premortem popular anglophones who died a young, unnatural death; that long-term boosts are smallest for leaders and largest for artists; and that, while both the news and Twitter are triggered by young and unnatural deaths, the news additionally curates collective memory when old persons or leaders die. Overall, we illuminate the age-old question of who is remembered by society, and the distinct roles of news and social media in collective memory formation.
      Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interest.
      (Copyright © 2021 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.)
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    • Contributed Indexing:
      Keywords: collective memory; computational social science; forgetting; news and social media analysis
    • Publication Date:
      Date Created: 20210916 Date Completed: 20220110 Latest Revision: 20240816
    • Publication Date:
      20240816
    • Accession Number:
      PMC8463883
    • Accession Number:
      10.1073/pnas.2106152118
    • Accession Number:
      34526401