Published by De Gruyter Mouton

Volume 42 Issue 3

Issue of Communications

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Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available September 8, 2017

Editorial

August 8, 2017

Communicating family memory: Remembering in a changing media environment

Christine Lohmeier, Rieke Böhling

Page range: 277-292

Articles

August 19, 2017

The media construction of family history: An analysis of “Who do you think you are?”

Peter Lunt

Page range: 293-307

Abstract

Genealogy, once a specialized research practice, is increasingly a common social practice enabled by digitization and cultural intermediaries that support the construction of family histories. The idea of finding out about oneself through an exploration of the character and lives of ancestors is a growing social practice reflected in popular culture. Tracing one’s personal traits through past family members and extending the sense of family and identity back in time potentially enriches personal identity and link personal, social and cultural memory. In this paper, an episode of the popular BBC TV program Who Do You Think You Are? is presented in which, it is argued, the celebrity guest embarks on a quest to construct a personalized history of the present as a way of resolving personal problems and understanding the basis of their celebrity. The implications of this analysis are expanded on to aid an understanding of the media representations of genealogy as a social practice and the media representation of the relation between history and memory.

August 8, 2017

Bereavement photographs as family photographs: Findings from a phenomenological study on family experience with neonatal end-of-life photography

Sara Martel

Page range: 309-326

Abstract

There has been little communication studies research into the neonatal end-of-life photography offered to families experiencing the death of a newborn in hospital settings. To contribute insight into how families experience this photography, a phenomenological study was conducted with parents ( n = 10) who had photos taken around the death of their newborns within a Canadian neonatal intensive care unit. This article reports findings from data collected through semi-structured interviews about the meaning these photographs hold for families after they leave the hospital and about their experience of sharing these images with others. The paper concludes with a discussion on neonatal end-of-life photography as domestic photography, contextualizing the practice within the contemporary culture of constant capture and circulation of family snapshots. I propose the public presence of these photographs as family photographs has potential to challenge the current culture in which expressions of mourning around reproductive loss are otherwise rendered invisible.

September 8, 2017

Sharing grief and mourning on Instagram: Digital patterns of family memories

Caja Thimm, Patrick Nehls

Page range: 327-349

August 3, 2017

Mediated memory making: The virtual family photograph album

Donell Holloway, Lelia Green

Page range: 351-368

Abstract

Domestic photography and the family photograph album hold significance as artefacts “communicating an ideal familial image and reifying the familial bonds, and also preserving a memory of a specific time” (Sarvas and Frohlich, 2011, p. 148). However, today’s practice of domestic photography is generally relocated to social media (Sarvas and Frohlich, 2011). Photographs previously found in the family photograph album are now likely to be located on the screens of phones and tablets. Using a Domestication of Technology framework, this article discusses how families are using Facebook to create, curate, share and archive family memories. It shows how families go through the phases of appropriation, incorporation, objectification and conversion when they adopt Facebook as the family photograph album. The authors also explore ways in which virtual family photograph albums can result in parental tension around domestic tasks of sharing and archiving family memories online, along with the possible implications of creating a potentially embarrassing, unauthorized digital footprint for their children.

Research in brief

August 3, 2017

Negotiating family history: Media use among descendants of Danish Nazis

Ole Krogsgaard

Page range: 369-379

Abstract

Danish descendants of former national socialists live in a society that characterizes their parents as traitors. They are therefore likely to experience a stark divergence between how the past is described in media texts and in their families. Taking media use as the starting point, this contribution explores the role Occupation-related media texts play for Nazi descendants and how they relate them to memories generated in their families. The contribution is empirically based on five semi-structured, qualitative interviews with children of former Danish Nazis. To understand the respondents’ media use, a remembered media repertoires approach is developed and employed in conjunction with a semi-narrative interview strategy. The findings suggest that respondents from families that have cultivated a memory about the Nazi past use media texts to supplement their family memory and criticize the mainstream cultural memory, whereas respondents from families where this past was a taboo avoid Occupation-related media texts but accept the cultural memory’s portrayal of national socialists.

Book Reviews

April 18, 2017

E. Oliveira, A. Duarte Melo & G. Conçalves: Strategic communication for non-profit organisations: Challenges and alternative approaches

David Ongenaert

Page range: 381-383

April 19, 2017

S. Mertens & H. de Smaele: Representations of Islam in the news: A cross-cultural analysis

Kevin Smets

Page range: 384-386

April 19, 2017

I. R. Smith: The Hollywood meme: Transnational adaptations in world cinema

Eduard Cuelenaere

Page range: 387-389

About this journal

Objective
Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research is an established forum for scholarship and academic debate in the field of communication science and research from a European perspective. Communication science is concerned with the investigation of the structure and function of communication processes and their impact on society, social groups and individuals. Communications highlights the concerns of this discipline through the publication of articles, research reports, review essays and book reviews on theoretical and methodological developments considered from a European perspective. The journal encompasses the entire field of communication science as its domain of interest. The contributions published in the journal cover a wide range of subfields in communication science.

Topics

Communication reseach
Structure and function of communication
Impact on society, social groups and individuals
Interpersonal communication
Intercultural communication
Mass communication
Communication theory
Philosophy of communication
Media history
Media development and communication technology

Article formats
Original articles, research reports, review essays, and book reviews

Volume 42 Issue 3

Issue of Communications

Frontmatter

Communicating family memory: Remembering in a changing media environment

The media construction of family history: An analysis of “Who do you think you are?”

Abstract

Bereavement photographs as family photographs: Findings from a phenomenological study on family experience with neonatal end-of-life photography

Abstract

Sharing grief and mourning on Instagram: Digital patterns of family memories

Mediated memory making: The virtual family photograph album

Abstract

Negotiating family history: Media use among descendants of Danish Nazis

Abstract

E. Oliveira, A. Duarte Melo & G. Conçalves: Strategic communication for non-profit organisations: Challenges and alternative approaches

S. Mertens & H. de Smaele: Representations of Islam in the news: A cross-cultural analysis

I. R. Smith: The Hollywood meme: Transnational adaptations in world cinema