Terrorism in the new memory ecology: Mediating and remembering the 2005 London Bombings

“Hirst and Manier ( 2008 ) similarly attempt to overcome the personal/collective distinction by suggesting that ‘collective memories’ be treated as ‘shared individual memories’ (p.”

“New platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter contribute to a “new memory ecology” and change established ways to research media and memory (Brown and Hoskins, 2010: 94).”

“For us, the study of the new memory ecology is founded upon similar principles of seeing the material and cultural environment in consort with cognition and emotion availed through it to illuminate the emergence of remembering and forgetting (Brown and Hoskins 2010).”

“Moreover, we argue that witness videos in popular archives such as YouTube are part of a broader shift in sociotechnical practices, constituting a “new memory ecology” (Brown and Hoskins, 2010; Hoskins, 2011a, 2011b).”

“There is a body of work in media and communication studies that considers how media (images, templates, narratives) are used to ‘ premediate ’ (Brown and Hoskins 2010; Erll 2008; Grusin 2004, 2010; Hoskins and O ’ Loughlin 2009) what is to come, to help make the future plausible and thus more…”

“Contemporary perspectives of remembering understand memory as an active process, where what is remembered is actively built and reconstructed every time, introducing the past into the present (Brown and Hoskins, 2010; Garde-Hanse et al., 2009).”

“…but rather as an achievement , produced by the interactions between humans and non-humans and the practices that regulate these interactions (Bowker, 2005; Brown and Hoskins, 2010; Guggenheim, 2009; Hoskins, 2009b; Middleton and Brown, 2005; Sturken, 2008; Van Dijck, 2007, 2011; Wertsch, 2002).”

“For Brown and Hoskins (2010), the rapid circulation of mobile images exemplifies a new media ecology in which experience is mediatized.”

“…is therefore interesting that this “war silence” was adopted in the wake the London Bombings, perhaps echoing the discourse of the resilience of Londoners under attack (the “Blitz spirit”) that featured prominently in tabloid newspaper reporting of the event at the time (see Brown & Hoskins, 2010).”

“As a contribution to that conversation, this article explores the role of memes as new “media templates” in the connective turn (Brown and Hoskins, 2010; Hoskins, 2004; Kitzinger, 2000), considering their ability to elongate the memory-making process, diversify representation, and influence broader…”

“…remembrance of activist events like those that commemorate Meier ’ s death coalesce into one another, spreading rapidly according to logics of connectivity as much as, if not more than, those of collectivity (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012; Brown & Hoskins, 2010; Garde-Hansen, Hoskins, & Reading, 2009).”

“In these senses, Schwarz (2014: 8) argues that our relations with the past are being fundamentally redistributed in a ‘new memory ecology’ (Brown and Hoskins, 2010) enabled through digitization.”

“It is not the London of the ‘Blitz spirit’, which was much cited in the immediate wake of the 2005 Bombings (see Brown and Hoskins, 2010).”

“…as one of the architects describes it, ‘organic, democratic, open’ (Groarke, interview).1 The Hyde Park memorial is a good example of a rich and subtle use of architectural abstraction to create a space capable of entertaining a plurality of meanings and references (see Brown and Hoskins, 2010).”

“See Brown and Hoskins (2010) for an account of how the rapid circulation of Chadwick’s photograph exemplifies the mediatization of experience within the ‘new memory ecology’.”

“Such an initiative as the Picturing Lockdown collection can only happen during this “new media ecology” (Hoskins, 2011) in which memory is shaped by the interaction between media and human beings’ behavior (Brown and Hoskins, 2010).”

“Social media platforms and debates therein have contributed to the ‘new memory ecology’ (Brown & Hoskins, 2010, p. 94) made it possible for memories to be passed on and shared across generations and hence resist the Zanu-Pf imagined brand of Zimbabweanness.”

“On the ‘about us’ section of its website, the EDL explains: If it were not for the inaction of the government in dealing properly with this form of Islamic fascism, there would be no need for groups such as The English Defence League, Welsh Defence League, Scottish Defence League and Ulster Defence League to counter t…”

“Replacing the transformative ‘ memory ecologies ’ , where memories became highly media-tised (Brown and Hoskins 2010) and where new existential insecurities and vulnerabilities have arisen (Lagerkvist 2013; Lagerkvist 2015), a new AI memory ecology is emerging.”

“The term is borrowed from the article by Brown and Hoskins (2010).”

“Drawing on a tradition of work in media studies on ‘ media ecologies ’ , Brown and Hoskins (2010) and Hoskins (2016) develop the idea of a ‘ memory ecology ’ , foregrounding the interdependence of material and cultural environments with cognition and emotion.”

“Moreover, the details of such posts can be understood through Brown and Kulik’s (1977) concept of ‘flashbulb memories’, those memories that are the result of a very surprising, consequential, and/or emotionally arousing event.”

“This novel approach to memory suggests that remembering is always a situated and collective activity , performed in interaction with others and the environment (Brown and Hoskins, 2010; Hoskins, 2016; Middleton and Brown, 2005).”

“In order to analyse this impact of public commemoration of extremistright violence in the ‘new memory ecology’ (Brown and Hoskins, 2010; Hoskins, 2016), we focus on Germany as a case study, due to the crucial role Germany played in transforming the ‘divisive memory of Nazi aggression and occupation’ into a unifying me…”

“…remembering of critical events Collective remembering is here understood as “an active process whereby the past is reconstructed in the present” (Brown and Hoskins, 2010: 91), taking place within a textual community grounded in the use of a shared set of texts (Wertsch, 2002: 62), producing a…”

“They are continually being reshaped and elaborated again by means of interaction with other people and cultural resources such as technological devices, textbooks, rituals, commemorations, memorials, and the media (Brown & Hoskins, 2010; Shore, 1 996; Sutton, 2009; Wertsch, 2009).”

“This framework addresses the cultural reaction to the trauma of terrorist violence, of the requirement to return to a degree of normality after an attack, and the political expediency of remembering or forgetting (Janz, 2008; Brown and Hoskins, 2010; Hoskins, 2011).”

“These scholars argue that monuments, photographs, VCRs, and digital technologies mediate, shape, and “ stabilize ” both individual and collective memory (Brown and Hoskins, 2010; Hoskins, 2011).”

“Further, Brown and Hoskins (2010) propose a ‘ new memory ecology ’ that, as in the work of Keightley et al. (2019), links the micro, meso, and macro levels to illuminate the sensemaking in memory processes, which results from both personal experience and culturality (Hoskins, 2016, 354).”

“…event, located on the one hand, and undeniably, within the physical substrate of the brain, but also triggered, manifested, and accessed in the form of stories, art, folklore, textbooks, media representations, and architecture, among many other social forms (e.g. Brown and Hoskins, 2010).”

“The concept of memory ecology (Brown and Hoskins, 2010; Hoskins, 2024) reminds us that remembrance is always entangled with the media and technologies of its time.”

“In altre parole, non si tratta di luoghi neutrali (Brown e Hoskins 2010), ma di veri e propri ecosistemi digitali che stanno sostituendo i luoghi fisici e tradizionali dell’archiviazione storica.”

“This perspective recognises that memory in the digital age is no longer solely embedded within stable, institutionalised narratives but is instead produced and circulated within a dynamic and fluid ‘ new memory ecology ’ (Brown and Hoskins 2010, p. 94).”