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The heavens opened and cried: mediatised national mourning for Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew

journal contribution
posted on 2016-12-01, 00:00 authored by Enqi WengEnqi Weng
When Singapore’s first Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, passed away on March 23 2015, a seven-day period of national mourning was declared and observed. During that week, news media emphasised stories about Lee, and these stories were widely re-circulated by Singaporeans via social media. This paper argues that during that period, a possible sacralisation of Lee was materialising through the presentation of media narratives and the contribution of tributes by Singaporeans. Using illustrative examples, it demonstrates that the mediatised ritual, viewed as the seven-day period that included the State procession and funeral on the final day, created a set apartness for Singaporeans to contemplate and reflect on Lee’s values and how they shaped his contributions to the nation. It then considers the avenues of future research based on this new chapter in the making of Singapore’s history.

History

Journal

Asian communication research

Volume

13

Issue

2

Pagination

65 - 85

Publisher

Korean Society for Journalism and Communication Studies

Location

Seoul, Korea

ISSN

1738-2084

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2016, Korean Society For Journalism And Communication Studies

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