Online memorials as a platform for empathy journalism

Abstract

Shortly after the suicide bombings and mass shootings that took place in and around Paris on 13 November 2015, journalists of the French daily newspaper Le Monde decided to honor and commemorate the victims by publishing their portraits and creating an online memorial called #EnMemoire (#InRemembrance). Until now, studies of these types of memorials have concentrated primarily on analyses of portraits and their narratives. They have not, however, focused on the environments in which they were produced and received. Likewise, no study has yet explored the journalist’s role or the place of empathy in the online-memorial creation process. Based on memory and journalism studies, this article discusses therefore the online memorial creation process and the role empathy plays in the ways journalists—as mediators of mourning—and readers interact with each other. It also addresses sensitivities the study researcher developed after experiencing these events.