Lafayette Strong: A Content Analysis of Grief and Support Online Following a Theater Shooting

Abstract

On July 23, 2015, in the Grand 16 Theatre in Lafayette, Louisiana, a gunman opened fire in the 7 o’clock showing of the movie, Trainwreck. Mayci Breaux, 21, and Jillian Johnson, 33, both received fatal wounds. Nine others were injured. As part of a community healing event following the shooting, a Tagboard was established around the hashtag LafayetteStrong. This study was conducted using a content analysis of 493 photographs and images among these posts. Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis provides a framework for these findings to better comprehend the online performance of self for a grieving community. The images of people, objects, and digital images present evidence of an authentic self to a grieving community in the wake of a local tragedy.

Keywords

grief loss death sociology qualitative data symbolic interactionism

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Altman, A. (2014, October 22). Retweet if you’re grieving. Retrieved from http://op-talk.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/retweet-if-youre-grieving/?_r=2.

Amyschumer. (2015, July 23). My heart is broken and all my thoughts and prayers are with everyone in Louisiana [Twitter Post]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/amyschumer/status/624419088924741632?lang=en.

Bacev-Giles

Haji

(2017) Online first impressions: Person perception in social media profiles. Computers in Human Behavior 75: 50–57.

Bareket-Bojmel

Moran

Shahar

(2016) Strategic self-presentation on Facebook: Personal motives and audience response to online behavior. Computers in Human Behavior 55: 788–795. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2015.10.033.

Bautista

J. R.

Lin

T. T.

(2015) Tweeting social support messages after a non-celebrity's death: The case of the Philippines’ #Fallen44. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 18(11): 641–646. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2015.0214.

Birnholtz, J., Burke, M., & Steele, A. (2017). Untagging on social media: Who untags, what do they untag, and why? Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 166.

Bivens, E. (2015, July 30). ‘Lafayette Strong: Unite. Honor. Heal’ helps community heal, move forward. Retrieved from http://raycomgroup.worldnow.com/story/29674067/lafayette-strong-unite-honor-heal-helped-community-heal-move-forward.

Bouc

Han

Pennington

(2016) “Why are they commenting on his page?” Using Facebook profile pages to continue connections with the deceased. Computers in Human Behavior 62: 635–643.

Brubaker

J. R.

Hayes

G. R.

Dourish

(2013) Beyond the grave: Facebook as a site for the expansion of death and mourning. The Information Society 29(3): 152–163. doi: 10.1080/01972243.2013.777300.

10.

Bullingham

Vasconcelos

A. C.

(2013) ‘The presentation of self in the online world’: Goffman and the study of online identities. Journal of Information Science 39(1): 101–112. doi: 10.1177/0165551512470051.

11.

Carroll

Landry

(2010) Logging on and letting out: Using online social networks to grieve and to mourn. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society 30(5): 341–349. doi: 10.1177/0270467610380006.

12.

Charmaz

(2006) Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis, London, England: Sage Publications.

13.

Chayka, K. (2015, December 4). Why social media turns to images to help us cope with tragedy. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/selectall/2015/12/why-we-turn-to-viral-images-to-cope-with-tragedy.html.

14.

Choi

G. Y.

Behm-Morawitz

(2016) Giving a new makeover to STEAM: Establishing YouTube beauty gurus as digital literacy educators through messages and effects on viewers. Computers in Human Behavior 73: 80–91.

15.

Community creates prayer flags for shooting victims. (2015, July 25). Retrieved from http://www.theadvertiser.com/picture-gallery/news/local/acadiana/2015/07/25/community-creates-prayer-flags-for-shooting-victims/30677695/.

16.

Condon, S. (2015). Sen. Chuck Schumer and comedian Amy Schumer team up on gun control. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sen-chuck-schumer-and-comedian-amy-schumer-team-up-on-gun-control/.

17.

Davidson

Letherby

(2014) Griefwork online: Perinatal loss, lifecourse disruption and online support. Human Fertility 17(3): 214–217. doi: 10.3109/14647273.2014.945498.

18.

Degroot

J. M.

(2012) Maintaining relational continuity with the deceased on Facebook. OMEGA 65(3): 195–212. doi: 10.2190/om.65.3.c.

19.

Degroot

J. M.

(2014) ‘For whom the bell tolls’: Emotional rubbernecking in Facebook memorial groups. Death Studies 38(2): 79–84. doi: 10.1080/07481187.2012.725450.

20.

Degroot, J. M., & Leith, A. P. (2015). R.I.P. Kutner: Parasocial grief following the death of a television character. OMEGA. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/0030222815600450.

21.

Döveling

(2015) Emotion regulation in bereavement: Searching for and finding emotional support in social network sites. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia 21(1–2): 106–122. doi: 10.1080/13614568.2014.983558.

22.

Faccio

Costa

(2013) The presentation of self in everyday prison life. Global Crime 14(4): 386–403.

23.

Falconer

Sachsenweger

Gibson

Norman

(2011) Grieving in the internet age. New Zealand Journal of Psychology 40(3): 79–88.

24.

Forman, A. E., Kern, R., & Gil-Egui, G. (2012). Death and mourning as sources of community participation in online social networks: R.I.P. pages in Facebook. First Monday, 17(9). doi: 10.5210/fm.v0i0.3935.

25.

Gallant, L. M., Boone, G. M., & Heap, A. (2007). Five heuristics for designing and evaluating web-based communities. First Monday, 12(3). doi: 10.5210/fm.v12i3.1626.

26.

Giaxoglou

(2015) Entextualising mourning on Facebook: Stories of grief as acts of sharing. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia 21(1–2): 87–105. doi: 10.1080/13614568.2014.983560.

27.

Gibbs

Meese

Arnold

Nansen

Carter

(2015) #Funeral and Instagram: Death, social media, and platform vernacular. Information, Communication & Society 18(3): 255–268. doi: 10.1080/1369118x.2014.987152.

28.

Gil-Egui

Kern-Stone

Forman

A. E.

(2017) Till death do us part? Conversations with deceased celebrities through memorial pages on Facebook. Celebrity Studies 8(2): 262–277.

29.

Glaser

B. G.

Strauss

A. L.

(1967) The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research, Chicago, IL: Aldine Pub.

30.

Goffman

(1959) The presentation of self in everyday life, Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

31.

Goffman

(1963) Behavior in public places, New York, NY: Free Press of Glencoe.

32.

Guadagno

R. E.

Okdie

B. M.

Kruse

S. A.

(2012) Dating deception: Gender, online dating, and exaggerated self-presentation. Computers in Human Behavior 28(2): 642–647. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2011.11.010.

33.

Harju

(2015) Socially shared mourning: Construction and consumption of collective memory. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia 21(1–2): 123–145. doi: 10.1080/13614568.2014.983562.

34.

Heide

B. V.

D’Angelo

J. D.

Schumaker

E. M.

(2012) The effects of verbal versus photographic self-presentation on impression formation in Facebook. Journal of Communication 62(1): 98–116. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01617.x.

35.

Hogan

(2010) The presentation of self in the age of social media: Distinguishing performances and exhibitions online. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society 30(6): 377–386. doi: 10.1177/0270467610385893.

36.

Irwin

M. D.

(2015) Mourning 2.0—Continuing bonds between the living and the dead on Facebook. OMEGA 72(2): 119–150. doi: 10.1177/0030222815574830.

37.

Jamieson, A. (2015, July 23). 3 killed, 9 wounded in Lafayette, Louisiana, movie theater shooting. Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/three-dead-lafayette-louisiana-movie-theater-shooting.

38.

Kapidzic

Herring

S. C.

(2014) Race, gender, and self-presentation in teen profile photographs. New Media & Society 17(6): 958–976. doi: 10.1177/1461444813520301.

39.

Kern

Forman

A. E.

Gil-Egui

(2013) R.I.P.: Remain in perpetuity. Facebook memorial pages. Telematics and Informatics 30(1): 2–10. doi: 10.1016/j.tele.2012.03.002.

40.

Khorram, Y., Ellis, R., & Payne, E. (2015, September 15). Lafayette shooter had history of right-wing web postings, erratic behavior. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/24/us/louisiana-theater-shooter/.

41.

Klass

Silverman

P. R.

Nickman

S. L.

(1996) Continuing bonds: New understandings of grief, Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis.

42.

Klastrup

(2015) ‘I didn't know her, but …’: Parasocial mourning of mediated deaths on Facebook RIP pages. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia 21(1): 146–164. doi: 10.1080/13614568.2014.983564.

43.

Krippendorff

(1980) Content analysis an introduction to its methodology, London, England: Sage.

44.

Krysinska

Andriessen

(2015) Online memorialization and grief after suicide. OMEGA 71(1): 19–47. doi: 10.1177/0030222814568276.

45.

Maader, C. (2015, July 24). Jillian Johnson 1982 – 2015. Retrieved from http://theind.com/article-21434-jillian-johnson-1982-2015.html.

46.

Mackie, B. (2014, October 20). RIP “RIP”: We need to be more creative with mourning in the digital age Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/20/rip-hashtag-lynda-bellingham.

47.

Maddrell

(2012) Online memorials: The virtual as the new vernacular. Bereavement Care 31(2): 46–54. doi: 10.1080/02682621.2012.710491.

48.

Malik

S. H.

Coulson

N. S.

(2013) Coming to terms with permanent involuntary childlessness: A phenomenological analysis of bulletin board postings. Europe’s Journal of Psychology 9(1): 77–92.

49.

Malik

S. H.

Coulson

N. S.

(2010) Coping with infertility online: An examination of self-help mechanisms in an online infertility support group. Patient Education and Counseling 81(2): 315–318. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2010.01.007.

50.

Marwick

A. E.

Boyd

(2010) I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience. New Media & Society 13(1): 114–133. doi: 10.1177/1461444810365313.

51.

Marwick

Ellison

N. E.

(2012) “There isn't WiFi in heaven!” Negotiating visibility on Facebook memorial pages. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 56(3): 378–400. doi: 10.1080/08838151.2012.705197.

52.

McEwen

Scheaffer

(2013) Virtual mourning and memory construction on Facebook: Here are the terms of use. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 50(1): 1–10. doi: 10.1002/meet.14505001086.

53.

Meese, J., Gibbs, M., Carter, M., Arnold, M., Nansen, B., & Kohn, T. (2015). Selfies at funerals: Mourning and presencing on social media platforms. International Journal of Communication, 9, 1818–1831. Retrieved from http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/viewFile/3154/1402.

54.

Miller

E. D.

(2015) Content analysis of select YouTube postings: Comparisons of reactions to the Sandy Hook and Aurora shootings and Hurricane Sandy. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 18(11): 635–640. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2015.0045.

55.

Mit

Topal

Ç.

(2015) A brief analysis of presentation of self in everyday life and Second Life. TISK Academy/TISK Akademi 10(20): 408–433.

56.

Mitchell, L. M., Stephenson, P. H., Macdonald, M. E., & Cadell, S. (2012). Death & grief on-line: Virtual memorialization and changing concepts of childhood death and parental bereavement on the internet. Health Sociology Review, 21(4), 413–431. doi: 10.5172/hesr.2012.2125.

57.

Murray

D. C.

(2015) Notes to self: The visual culture of selfies in the age of social media. Consumption Markets & Culture 18(6): 490–516.

58.

Myrick

J. G.

Holton

A. E.

Himelboim

Love

(2016) #Stupidcancer: Exploring a typology of social support and the role of emotional expression in a social media community. Health Communication 31(5): 596–605. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2014.981664.

59.

Neimeyer

R. A.

Prigerson

H. G.

Davies

(2002) Mourning and meaning. American Behavioral Scientist 46(2): 235–251. doi: 10.1177/000276402236676.

60.

Packman

Carmack

B. J.

Katz

Carlos

Field

N. P.

Landers

(2014) Online survey as empathic bridging for the disenfranchised grief of pet loss. OMEGA 69(4): 333–356.

61.

Park

Chung

(2011) Mediating roles of self-presentation desire in online game community commitment and trust behavior of massive multiplayer online role-playing games. Computers in Human Behavior 27(6): 2372–2379. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2011.07.016.

62.

Paulus

T. M.

Varga

M. A.

(2015) ‘Please know that you are not alone with your pain’: Responses to newcomer posts in an online grief support forum. Death Studies 39(10): 633–640. doi: 10.1080/07481187.2015.1047060.

63.

Perrin, A. (2015, October). Social networking usage: 2005–2015. Pew Research Center, Washington DC. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/08/social-networking-usage-2005-2015/.

64.

Phillips, W. (2011). LOLing at tragedy: Facebook trolls, memorial pages and resistance to grief online. First Monday, 16(12). Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3168/3115.

65.

Rafalow

M. H.

Adams

B. L.

(2013, August) Navigating the tavern: Tethering public and private spheres with ubiquitous technologies, New York, NY: American Sociological Association.

66.

Rui

J. R.

Stefanone

M. A.

(2013) Strategic image management online. Information, Communication & Society 16(8): 1286–1305. doi: 10.1080/1369118x.2013.763834.

67.

Saker

(2017) Foursquare and identity: Checking-in and presenting the self through location. New Media & Society 19(6): 934–949.

68.

Sanderson

Cheong

P. H.

(2010) Tweeting prayers and communicating grief over Michael Jackson online. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society 30(5): 328–340. doi: 10.1177/0270467610380010.

69.

Schwartz

Halegoua

G. R.

(2015) The spatial self: Location-based identity performance on social media. New Media & Society 17(10): 1643–1660. doi: 10.1177/1461444814531364.

70.

Shifman

(2013) Memes in digital culture, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

71.

Siibak

(2009) Constructing the self through the photo selection – Visual impression management on social networking websites. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace 3(1): article 1.

72.

Silver

Matthews

(2016) The use of Facebook for information seeking, decision support, and self-organization following a significant disaster. Information, Communication & Society 20: 1680–1697.

73.

Smith, A. (2015, April). US Smartphone Use in 2015. Pew Research Center, Washington DC. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/01/us-smartphone-use-in-2015/.

74.

Smith

L. R.

Sanderson

(2015) I’m going to Instagram it! An analysis of athlete self-presentation on Instagram. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 59(2): 342–358.

75.

Stone

L. D.

Pennebaker

J. W.

(2002) Trauma in real time: Talking and avoiding online conversations about the death of Princess Diana. Basic and Applied Social Psychology 24(3): 173–183. doi: 10.1207/s15324834basp2403_1.

76.

Strauss

Corbin

(1990) Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

77.

Stroebe

Schut

(2010) The dual process model of coping with bereavement: A decade later. OMEGA 61(4): 269, 271.

78.

Sung

Lee

Kim

Choi

S. M.

(2016) Why we post selfies: Understanding motivations for posting pictures of oneself. Personality and Individual Differences 97: 260–265. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.032.

79.

Swann, N. (2014, April 19). ‘Boston Strong’: Has the motto run its course? Retrieved from http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2014/0419/Boston-Strong-Has-the-motto-run-its-course-video.

80.

Tang

Park

(2016) Sun exposure, tanning beds, and herbs that cure: An examination of skin cancer on Pinterest. Health Communication 32: 1192–1200.

81.

Taylor, C. (2015, July 27). Hundreds gather to remember Mayci Breaux. Retrieved from http://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/2015/07/27/hundreds-gather-remember-mayci-breaux/30738847/.

82.

Three dead, seven hurt after gunman opened fire in Louisiana movie theater. (2015, July 15). Retrieved from http://fox6now.com/2015/07/23/breaking-police-respond-to-report-of-shooting-at-grand-16-theatre-in-louisiana/.

83.

Varga

M. A.

Paulus

T. M.

(2014) Grieving online: Newcomers’ constructions of grief in an online support group. Death Studies 38(7): 443–449. doi: 10.1080/07481187.2013.780112.

84.

Vicary

A. M.

Fraley

R. C.

(2010) Student reactions to the shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University: Does sharing grief and support over the internet affect recovery? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36(11): 1555–1563. doi: 10.1177/0146167210384880.

85.

Vitak

(2012) The impact of context collapse and privacy on social network site disclosures. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 56(4): 451–470. doi: 10.1080/08838151.2012.732140.

86.

Waite

C. J.

Bourke

(2015) Rural young people's perspectives on online sociality: Crossing geography and exhibiting self through Facebook. Rural Society 24(2): 200–218. doi: 10.1080/10371656.2015.1060720.

87.

Walter

(2015) New mourners, old mourners: Online memorial culture as a chapter in the history of mourning. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia 21(1–2): 10–24. doi: 10.1080/13614568.2014.983555.

88.

Walter

Hourizi

Moncur

Pitsillides

(2011–2012) Does the internet change how we die and mourn? Overview and analysis. OMEGA 64(4): 275–302. doi: 10.2190/om.64.4.a.

89.

Will Grand 16 have same fate as Aurora theater? (2015, September 12). Retrieved from http://klfy.com/2015/09/12/will-grand-16-have-same-fate-as-aurora-theater/.

90.

Williams

A. L.

Merten

M. J.

(2009) Adolescents’ online social networking following the death of a peer. Journal of Adolescent Research 24(1): 67–90. doi: 10.1177/0743558408328440.

91.

Willis

Royne

M. B.

(2017) Online health communities and chronic disease self-management. Health Communication 32(3): 269–278.

92.

Yang

Brown

B. B.

(2016) Online self-presentation on Facebook and self development during the college transition. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 45(2): 402–416. doi: 10.1007/s10964-015-0385-y.

93.

Zhao

(2005) The digital self: Through the looking glass of telecopresent others. Symbolic Interaction 28(3): 387–405. doi: 10.1525/si.2005.28.3.387.

94.

Zhao

Grasmuck

Martin

(2008) Identity construction on Facebook: Digital empowerment in anchored relationships. Computers in Human Behavior 24(5): 1816–1836. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2008.02.012.