Introduction: Death, Dying and Participatory Media + Open Section

Abstract

With the increase in the use of social and digital media in general during the past decade, it is not surprising that social and digital media practices in relation to death, loss and bereavement have continuously increased in the same period. From the sharing of personal grief on dedicated online forums (e.g. Christensen & Sandvik 2013), in Facebook groups and on Instagram (e.g. Christensen et al 2017), to peer-to-peer communities of grief (e.g. Segerstad & Kasperowski 2015) and public engagement in politically motivated deaths such as terror, ideological killings etc. (e.g. Sumiala 2012; Sumiala 2021; Harju & Huhtamäki 2021). During the last decade, research into digital death-related practices has grown accordingly as a strong subdiscipline of various academic disciplines. In 2013, the international Death Online Research Network (DORN) was established as a response to the then emerging field, and now, about ten years later, this network has become an important network for exchanging research ideas and results, for instance through biannual research symposiums. In 2021, the fifth symposium (DORS#5) took place at the IT- University in Copenhagen (in fact, online, due to Covid-19) with the attendance of researchers from more than 10 countries, and after the event, a number of presenters were invited to contribute to this special issue, and we are happy to present the results of these efforts.