TY - JOUR
T1 - Racial Differences in Response to Chadwick Boseman’s Colorectal Cancer Death
T2 - Media Use as a Coping Tool for Parasocial Grief
AU - Myrick, Jessica G.
AU - Willoughby, Jessica F.
AU - Clark, Meredith D.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - The August 2020 death of Black actor Chadwick Boseman, at age 43 from colon cancer was a notable public event. Given Boseman’s popularity, particularly amongst Black audiences, and racial disparities in colorectal cancer rates, public responses to this news provided a window into potential racial differences in expressing and responding to parasocial grief, that is, grief at the loss of a public figure. Additionally, given how the movies he starred in were easily viewable by audiences stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic and given his popularity on digital spaces like Black Twitter, this case offers insights into how media use can help people cope with parasocial grief. We conducted a mixed-methods survey study of audience responses Boseman’s death. Quantitative results reveal that Black audiences had different rates of social sharing and movie viewing than non-Black audiences, with additional insights emerging from a thematic analysis of the open-ended data.
AB - The August 2020 death of Black actor Chadwick Boseman, at age 43 from colon cancer was a notable public event. Given Boseman’s popularity, particularly amongst Black audiences, and racial disparities in colorectal cancer rates, public responses to this news provided a window into potential racial differences in expressing and responding to parasocial grief, that is, grief at the loss of a public figure. Additionally, given how the movies he starred in were easily viewable by audiences stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic and given his popularity on digital spaces like Black Twitter, this case offers insights into how media use can help people cope with parasocial grief. We conducted a mixed-methods survey study of audience responses Boseman’s death. Quantitative results reveal that Black audiences had different rates of social sharing and movie viewing than non-Black audiences, with additional insights emerging from a thematic analysis of the open-ended data.
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U2 - 10.1177/00302228221139345
DO - 10.1177/00302228221139345
M3 - Article
C2 - 36408997
AN - SCOPUS:85142607100
SN - 0030-2228
JO - Omega (United States)
JF - Omega (United States)
ER -