Abstract In the digital era, the media of memory have undergone significant transformation, creating a new memory ecosystem. In particular, the rise of social media platforms, extending Nora’s realistic imagination of the “memory field”, comes to build a digital “memory field” different from the traditional spatial structure. In many human memory activities, people’s commemoration of historical events and heroic figures is an eternal theme running through the past, present and future. When the online media gradually replaces the traditional media to be the core “memory field”, how the past memory will continue becomes a key issue. Based on the context, this study focuses on the construction of online commemorative spaces and digital “fields of memory”, and explores how social media within the digital ecosystem constructs a digital “field of memory” under commemorative themes, using the commemorative video and commentary text of the “The NATO Bombing of the Former Chinese Embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia” on the bilibili.com as the research object. Furthermore, it investigates the profound impact of this new memory practice on the continuation of human hero memories.By combining the quantitative and qualitative research methods and utilizing big data topic mining, online ethnography, and text analysis, it is found that the condolences for the martyrs on bilibili.com form a “field of memory” around the commemorative video of the event. Firstly, the digital “field of memory” exhibits clear structural features. One of such features is that commemorative activities show periodic cycles and instantaneous bursts around the specific dates of specific events. The commemorative videos on the current topic on the bilibili.com are mainly released in the form of “anniversaries” at specific time periods, but sometimes there are also signs of time-advanced outbreaks due to its strong relevance to current events. Commemorative videos related to the theme are primarily released in the form of “anniversary celebrations” during specific periods. However, they may also experience abrupt surges due to strongly related current events. The other structural feature lies in the thematic clustering of commemorative videos. With the support of algorithms, commemorative videos with similar themes form a “virtual memorial hall”. This new commemorative exhibition mode places hero memories in different contexts and historical backgrounds, enabling commemorative mourning and new meaning production.Secondly, the digital “memory field” has four unique functional effects: (1) Personalized commemorative words of user emotions and memories, through interactive rituals and social sharing in the digital space, can be consolidated into cohesive and collective social emotions. (2) The online commemorative space constructs the ritual communication based on the traditional commemorative ritual performances, allowing the cultural memory to be continually reenacted through ritual performances, and also imbuing it with new significance and ensuring its preservation and continuity through media. (3) Through the digital cultural practice of emotions, the traumatic memory of the memorial public can be precipitated into cultural genes infused with national ideology, completing a new process of meaning construction. (4) The attributes of digital commemorative spaces enhance the circulation of social emotions, thereby constructing and sustaining public identity.Therefore, this research suggests that social media, amidst the process of digital transformation, has built independent online commemorative space and digital “fields of memory” and shaped a new environment that is based on the curation of user content and promoting hero memories via commemorative discourse, thus providing a reference for transmitting and continuing the digital memory of heroes and martyrs.
Shao Peng,Zhao Ruoyi,Pan Zhongjing. Digital “Fields of Memory”: The Reconstruction of Heroic Commemorative Space in Social Media[J]. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2024, 54(5): 29-41.
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