Os Pêsames no Online. Etnografia Aplicada ao Discurso dos Utilizadores no Facebook de Funerárias Portuguesas

Pedro Manuel Pinto Caldeira Pais; Pedro Pereira Neto

doi:10.17231/comsoc.46(2024).6002

Authors

Pedro Manuel Pinto Caldeira Pais Centro de Investigação e Estudos de Sociologia, Escola de Sociologia e Políticas Públicas, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9125-0229
Pedro Pereira Neto Escola Superior de Comunicação Social, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1635-8387

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17231/comsoc.46(2024).6002

Keywords:

obituaries, discourse of mourning, Facebook, discourse analysis, ethnography

Abstract

This article examines the condolence discourse of users responding to obituaries posted by local Portuguese funeral parlours on Facebook. Aiming to explore mourning discourse and identify online community dynamics that interact with the physical community surrounding the funeral parlour, we adopted a methodology combining principles of critical discourse analysis and ethnography. The findings reveal several notable aspects: the spaces were marked by informality, evident in the prevalence of misspellings and grammatical errors, the use of pictographic elements (e.g., emojis), and the recurrence of users posting identical comments across posts regardless of the deceased. These spaces also prompted discursive contrasts, ranging from seemingly inappropriate interactions to heartfelt comments sharing personal experiences of grief. Furthermore, they served as venues for remembering, characterising, and imagining the deceased, often through narratives of shared experiences. This discursive diversity is argued to be facilitated by Facebook’s integration into everyday life and its mediated nature. Coupled with an apparent lack of emotional literacy in the digital context, this appears to relieve certain users of responsibility in the discourse produced.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Pedro Manuel Pinto Caldeira Pais, Centro de Investigação e Estudos de Sociologia, Escola de Sociologia e Políticas Públicas, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

Pedro Caldeira Pais is a sociologist who graduated from University Institute of Lisbon. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Communication Sciences at the same institution, funded by a grant from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. His professional experience includes work at the Observatório da Comunicação in Lisbon. As a researcher, his interests focus on sociology and communication, with particular emphasis on social movements, audiovisual media, discourse analysis, and the communication of death.

Pedro Pereira Neto, Escola Superior de Comunicação Social, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

Pedro Pereira Neto holds a doctorate in Social Sciences, specialising in Political Communication, from the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Lisbon. He also holds a master’s degree in Communication, Culture, and Communication Technologies from University Institute of Lisbon. Since 2008, he has served as a guest adjunct professor at the Escola Superior de Comunicação Social and, since 2011, as a guest assistant professor at University Institute of Lisbon. His scholarly contributions include articles, books, book chapters, participation in research projects, and roles in organising scientific events and publications, with a focus on media and cultural industries.

References

Al-Shboul, Y., & Maros, M. (2013). Condolences strategies by Jordanians to an obituary status update on Facebook. Gema Online Journal of Language Studies, 13(3), 151–162.

Ariès, P. (1974). Western attitudes towards death: From middle ages to the present. Maryon Boyars Publishers.

Arnold, M., Gibbs, M., Kohn, T., Meese, J., & Nansen, B. (2018). Death and digital media. Routledge.

Baker, S. (2013). Conceptualizing the use of Facebook in ethnographic research: As tool, as data and as context. Ethnography and Education, 8(2), 131–145. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457823.2013.792504

Brubaker, J. R., Hayes, G. R., & Dourish, P. (2013). Beyond the grave: Facebook as a site for the expansion of death and mourning. The Information Society, 29(3), 152–163. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2013.777300

Caprara, B. M. (2023). A teoria das práticas sociais em Bourdieu e Lahire: Diálogos e divergências. Revista Espaço Acadêmico, 22(239), 71–79. http://hdl.handle.net/10183/263088

Catroga, F. (1991). Revolução e secularização dos cemitérios em Portugal (Inumistas e Cremacionistas). In A. M. Coelho (Ed.), Atitudes perante a morte (pp. 95–174). Livraria Minerva.

Deleuze, G. (1990, maio). Postscript on the societies of control. L’Autre Journal, (1).

Fairclough, N. (1997). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. Longman.

Fernández, E. C. (2007). Linguistic devices coping with death in Victorian obituaries. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses, 20, 7–21. https://doi.org/10.14198/raei.2007.20.01

Fowler, B. (2007). The obituary as collective memory. Routledge.

Ghazanfar, S., Maqbool, S., & Masum, R. (2022). An analysis of digital communication and use of emojis. VFAST Transactions on Education and Social Sciences, 10(1), 105–116.

Giaxoglou, K. (2014). “R.I.P man ... U are missed and loved by many”: Entextualising moments of mourning on a Facebook Rest in Peace group site. Thanatos, 3(1), 10–28.

Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Penguin Books.

Gustavsson, A. (2011). Cultural studies on death and dying in Scandinavia. Novus Press.

Herbert, S. (2000). For ethnography. Progress in Human Geography, 24(4), 550–568. https://doi.org/10.1191/030913200100189102

Hine, C. (2000). Virtual ethnography. SAGE.

Kayseller, S. G. (2012). Análise estratégica e inovação: Caso Servilusa [Dissertação de mestrado, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa]. Repositório do Iscte. http://hdl.handle.net/10071/4631

Kellehear, A. (2007). A social history of dying. Cambridge University Press.

Kohn, T., Gibbs, M., Arnold, M., & Nansen, B. (2012). Facebook and the other: Administering to and caring for the dead online. In G. Hage & R. Eckersley (Eds.), Responsability (pp. 128–141). Melbourne University Press.

Kristeva, J. (1986). The Kristeva reader. Columbia University Press.

Lahire, B. (2005). Patrimónios individuais de disposições—Para uma sociologia à escala individual. Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas, 49, 11–42.

Laungani, P., & Young, B. (2003). Conclusões I: Implicações práticas e políticas (J. Barata, Trad.). In C. M. Parkes, P. Laungani, & B. Young (Eds.), Morte (pp. 253–270). Climepsi Editores. (Trabalho original publicado em 1997)

Lofland, L. (1985). The social shaping of emotion: The case of grief. Symbolic Interaction, 8(2), 171–190. https://doi.org/10.1525/si.1985.8.2.171

Longbottom, S., & Slaughter, V. (2018). Sources of children’s knowledge about death and dying. Philosophical Transactions B., 373(1754), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0267

Maclaren, P., & Catterall, M. (2002). Researching the social web: Marketing information from virtual communities. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 20(6), 319–326.

Marks, A., & Piggee, T. (1998). Obituary analysis and describing a life lived: The impact of race, gender, age, and economic status. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying, 38(1), 37–57. https://doi.org/10.2190/K8V4-693D-EF8L-VBVA

Martins, T. A., Nunes, J. A., Dias, I., & Menezes, I. (2022). Etnografia online sobre uma associação de pessoas reformadas em Portugal. Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais, 128, 135–158. https://doi.org/10.4000/rccs.13503

Mendes, R. C. (2018). Viver da morte, a indústria funerária em Portugal. Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos.

Moyer, L., & Enck, S. (2018). Is my grief too public for you? The digitalization of grief on FacebookTM. Death Studies, 44(4), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2018.1522388

Naidoo, L. (2012). Ethnography: An introduction to definition and method. In L. Naidoo (Ed.), An ethnography of global landscapes and corridors (pp. 1–8). IntechOpen.

Nansen, B., Arnold, M., Gibbs, M., & Kohn, T. (2014). The restless dead in the digital cemetery. In A. D. Lewis & C. M. Moreman (Eds.), Digital death: Mortality and beyond in the online age (pp. 111–124). Praeger Publishers.

Nansen, B., Kohn, T., Arnold, M., van Ryn, L., & Gibbs, M. (2017). Social media in the funeral industry: On the digitization of grief. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 61(1), 73–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2016.1273925

Pais, P. C., & Neto, P. P. (2022). Comunicação dos serviços da morte: Análise Crítica do Discurso aplicada a websites da Servilusa. Observatorio (OBS*), 16(4), 160–184. https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS16420222227

Parkes, C. M., Laungani, P., & Young, B. (2003). Introdução (J. Barata, Trad.). In C. M. Parkes, P. Laungani, & B. Young (Eds.), Morte e luto através das culturas (pp. 15–21). Climepsi Editores. (Trabalho original publicado em 1997)

Ramos, H. (2015). Além-túmulo no Facebook: Vida após a morte e luto na era digital. Observatorio (OBS*), 9(4), 31–50. https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS942015705

Rebelo, J. (2000). O discurso do jornal. O como e o porquê. Editorial Notícias.

Riva, G., & Galimberti, C. (1998). Computer-mediated communication: Identity and social interaction in an electronic environment. Genetic Social and General Psychology Monographs, 124(4), 434–464.

Rusu, M. S. (2020). Celebrities’ memorial afterlives: Obituaries, tributes, and posthumous gossip in the Romanian Media Deathscape. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying, 80(4), 568–591. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222817748418

Sales, J. das C. (2016). As carpideiras rituais egípcias: Entre a expressão de emoções e a encenação pública. A importância das lamentações fúnebres. ISIMU, 18, 61–76. https://doi.org/10.15366/isimu2015-2016.18-19.003

Santi, F., & Bianchi, D. (2023). Bereavement in the digital age: The challenges of online sharing and digital memory preservation. Medicina Historica, 7(2), 1–6. https://doi.org/7(S2):e2023023

Servilusa. (s.d.). Agência Funerária Borges. Retirado a 6 de novembro de 2024, de https://www.servilusa.pt/agencia-funeraria-borges

Skåbegy, J. (2011). Online ethnographic methods: Towards a qualitative understanding of virtual community practices. In B. K. Daniel (Ed.), Handbook of research on methods and techniques for studying virtual communities: Paradigms and phenomena (pp. 410–428). Information Science Reference.

Stark, L., & Crawford, K. (2015). The conservatism of emoji: Work, affect, and communication. Social Media + Society, 1(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305115604853

Ulmer, G. L. (2005). Electronic monuments. University of Minnesota Press.

van Dijk, T. A. (1997). Discourse as social interaction. Discourse Studies, ii: A multidisciplinary introduction. SAGE.

Vries, de B., & Rutherford, J. (2004). Memorializing loved ones on the world wide web. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying, 49(1), 5–26. https://doi.org/10.2190/DR46-RU57-UY6P-NEWM

Walter, T. (2003). A secularização (J. Barata, Trad.). In C. M. Parkes, P. Laungani, & B. Young (Eds.), Morte e luto através das culturas (pp. 195–218). Climepsi Editores. (Trabalho original publicado em 1997)

Walter, T. (2005). Three ways to arrange a funeral: Mortuary variation in the modern West. Mortality, 10, 173–192. https://doi.org/10.1080/13576270500178369

Walter, T. (2007). Modern grief, postmodern grief. International Review of Sociology, 17(1), 123–134. https://doi.org/10.1080/03906700601129798

Walter, T. (2008). Sociology of death. Sociology Compass, 2(1), 317–336. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2007.00069.x

Walter, T. (2017). What death means now. Policy Press.

Walter, T., Hourizi, R., Moncur, W., & Pitsillides, S. (2012). Does the internet change how we die and mourn? Overview and analysis. Journal of Death & Dying, 64(4), 275–302. https://doi.org/10.2190/OM.64.4.a

Williams, A., & Merten, M. (2009). Adolescents’ online social networking following the death of a peer. Journal of Adolescent Research, 24(1), 67–90. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558408328440

Young, B., & Papadatou, D. (2003). Infância, morte e luto através das culturas (J. Barata, Trad.). In C. M. Parkes, P. Laungani, & B. Young (Eds.), Morte e luto através das culturas (pp. 221–238). Climepsi Editores. (Trabalho original publicado em 1997)