ABSTRACT
The study examines representations of death in digital memory culture, focusing on selfies, visual practices at Holocaust memorials, and thanatourism as travel to sites of tragedy and suffering. In the digital era, these practices have gained new dimensions tied to influencer culture and social media aesthetics, where death becomes aestheticized and commodified. The Holocaust, as a uniquely sensitive event, is especially vulnerable to superficial mediatization through necrotainment. Sites such as Auschwitz or Terezín, mediated online, oscillate between piety, education, and the trivialization of trauma. The framework draws on Freud’s death drive, Hirsch’s postmemory, and Thiemeyer’s performative memory culture, supplemented by Ballis’s pedagogical view, which stresses the role of digital media in fostering empathy, media literacy, and critical thinking among Generation Z. The methodology combines hermeneutic and semiotic analysis with culturalcritical reflection on narcissism and necrotainment. Case studies include the Berlin Holocaust Memorial, the Yolocaust project, and digital initiatives on TikTok and Instagram (Lily Ebert & Dov Forman, Miriam Ezagui, Montana Tucker). Findings show that digital depictions of death oscillate between piety and trivialization: performative aspects of memory culture enable new trauma mediation but risk aestheticized reduction into a decorative element of digital identity. The study underscores the need to integrate death, trauma, and memory into media education, with emphasis on historical sensitivity and ethical representation.
KEY WORDS
Digital Memory Culture. Holocaust Memorials. Media Literacy. Performative Memory Culture. Postmemory. Selfies. Thanatourism. Visual Self-Presentation.rmation. Social Media.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.34135/mlar-25-02-10
Online Aestheticization of Death: From Thanatourism to Digital Representations of Death © 2025 by Erika Moravčíková, Michala Fúsková, Michal Kurpaš, Ingrid Baniatová, UCM Trnava is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.