Postmortem memory of public figures in news and social media

TL;DR

This study quantifies how mentions of public figures in news and social media change after death, revealing patterns and factors influencing collective memory formation across platforms.

Contribution

It introduces a quantitative analysis of post-mortem memory patterns and models the roles of news and social media in shaping collective remembrance.

Findings

Mentions spike sharply and decay rapidly after death.

Pre-mortem popularity and cause of death influence attention boosts.

Different patterns observed for artists, leaders, and age groups.

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) one year 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 post-mortem memory, and regression analysis shows that boosts in media attention are largest for pre-mortem 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 who is remembered by society, and the distinct roles of news and social media in collective memory formation.