Celebrity ghosts in the machine

Like other forms of traditional social ritual, mourning practices are replicated in online settings, but also supplemented and altered in meaningful ways. This dissertation explores online mourning in the aftermath of a high-profile celebrity death. Using case studies of six celebrity deaths I reveal the similarities between the ways that fans mourn celebrities and the ways that social media users mourn non-celebrities. The dissertation proposes two possible roots of why celebrity mourning resembles other online mourning. First, when a celebrity dies, the loss feels intertwined in many ways with our own identity. Fans must make sense of the world, and their own identity, without that person in it. The second explanation draws on the ways that celebrity/non-celebrity connections have been theorized as parasocial relationships. Although fans likely have not met the celebrity, or have what would traditionally be considered personal relationships, an emotional connection, familiarity, and even feelings of ownership can be built up over time and repeated mediated exposures. Because of this connection, a celebrity death can feel shocking, immediate and profound in the ways that it would if the person was an actual social connection. This work is primarily interested then in what digital media might mean for this parasocial relationship posthumously. I investigate the ways that grieving behavior reveals a quest for continued connection to the celebrity, how fans communally grieve celebrities, and the ways in which SNS users literally and metaphorically consume markers of celebrity to maintain the parasocial connection. I suggest that the concept of presence-both the continued presence of the celebrity online, evoked through mourning practices, as well as the presence of other mourners-is useful in understanding how mourners sustain parasociality. Studying celebrity online mourning brings together issues of social media and identity; fandom and virtual communities; consumer culture; and mediated memorialization. When grieving moves into the mediated sphere of celebrity and fandom, it opens up an avenue of understanding other significant shifts taking place in today's media environment and makes visible new possibilities for researchers of popular culture, celebrity, posthumous fame, and digital media.