Language of Illness and Death on Social Media

Carsten Stage is Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark. Book publications include Networked Cancer: Affect, Narrative and Measurement (Palgrave/Springer, 2017), Global Media, Biopolitics, and Affect: Politicising Bodily Vulnerability (Routledge, 2015, co-author), Affective Methodologies: Developing Cultural Research Strategies for the Study of Affect (Palgrave, 2015, co-editor). He is co-editor of Conjunctions: Transdisciplinary Journal of Cultural Participation and co-director of the research programme Cultural Transformations at Aarhus University. His research deals with illness narratives, affect, social media and participation. Tina Thode Hougaard is Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark. Articles on this topic include "Emojier, interjektioner og affekt – sorg og medfølelse på Facebook" in 16. Møde om Udforskningen af Dansk Sprog (2017, Aarhus Universitet), "Interjections, phonetics, and the body", Scandinavian Studies in Language (2018) and "Emojis in the Digital Writings of Young Danes" in Youth language. Current perspectives of International Research (Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2018, co-author). She is co-editor of Scandinavian Studies in Language and Møde om Udforskning af Dansk Sprog. Her research deals with interaction and use of language in social media.

• Chapter 1.Introduction Chapter 2.Theoretical framework Chapter 3.Forms of affective language Chapter 4.Rhythms of affective language Chapter 5.Conclusion

This study of social media communication about illness and death develops a framework for understanding the role of affective language on social media and for exploring shared affective processes on social media groups. After an overview of current research on social media and language, in-depth case studies analyze language used on Facebook Groups that discuss the illness and death of two children in Denmark. The case studies report on manifestations of affective language on social media such as emojis, interjections, images, semiotic actions, and other forms of expression online.