When a pop star dies : - an ethnological study on how the public grief was expressed following the news of David Bowie's passing

Public grief reactions is a recurrent phenomena that can seem incomprehensible to the onlooker and sometimes even to the mourners themselves. This case study on the death of David Bowie discusses what takes place when fans mourn an idol with the object to gain more insight into what these reactions are, say and do along with how these public grief reactions are connected to form, space and time. The results show that in the initial stages there is an outpouring of personal grief reactions in public spaces amplified by the intense news coverage of the event. After a couple of days a shift occurs amongst the fans where the heaviest emotions are replaced by gratitude and collectedness