This article investigates the memory work concerning Michael Jackson on Reddit. By means of their posts, comments, and replies, people contributing to this site – Redditors – enter into a process we call mnemonic stabilization. This is a collaborative process in which networked individuals share their memories about, in this case, Michael Jackson. We argue that this process resembles Jackson’s dance technique called moonwalking: Redditors seem to go back in time, but they continually alter how Jackson is remembered and forgotten, depending on the (personal) context of the present and an imagined future. These theoretical observations are assessed empirically by a content analysis of comments and replies (N = 917) posted on the subreddit /r/MichaelJackson between June 25, 2009, and December 31, 2018. This revealed that most posts with a mnemonic dimension focus on personal memories of Michael Jackson’s music, performances, and (perceived) positive characteristics, rather than on how he should be remembered. These findings can be partially explained by Reddit’s socio-technical infrastructure.

本文调查了有关Reddit上的Michael Jackson的记忆工作。通过其帖子，评论和答复，对该站点做出贡献的人员（Redditors）进入了我们称为助记符稳定的过程。这是一个协作过程，在此过程中，网络个体共享他们对迈克尔·杰克逊的记忆。我们认为，此过程类似于杰克逊的舞蹈技巧，称为“月球漫步”：改编者似乎可以追溯到过去，但它们会根据当前（个人）的背景和想象的未来不断改变人们如何记住和忘记杰克逊。这些理论观察是通过对评论和答复的内容分析进行经验评估的（N= 917）发布在2009年6月25日至2018年12月31日之间的subreddit / r / MichaelJackson上。这表明大多数带有助记符的帖子都着重于对迈克尔·杰克逊音乐，表演和（公认的）积极特征的个人记忆，而不是他如何应该被记住。这些发现可以由Reddit的社会技术基础设施部分解释。