At Religion Dispatches, Pauline Hope Cheong writes about the online media rituals surrounding the mourning of Michael Jackson:
According to Emile Durkheim in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, rituals (religious or secular) serve to revitalize communal sentiments and a sense of sacred purpose, which in turn generates potent feelings of collective “effervescence” or transcendence through identification with collective bodies. These days rituals, including rituals of mourning, praise, and eulogies for celebrities, are often enacted in and through the media sphere.
In this sense, the public drama of the death of Michael Jackson can be understood as a media ritual which powerfully secures solidarity and even a higher moral purpose among fans and followers. With the Internet and online social networking platforms, admirers of MJ, including religious believers, can now participate in the creation of their own ritual and symbols of remembrance online.
Read the full post here.