CO-CONSTRUCTING DIGITAL COMMEMORATION ON FACEBOOK DURING REUNIFICATION DAY

Abstract

Vietnam’s reunification day has increasingly been commemorated through social media, where remembrance extends beyond official institutions to include influential digital figures and public participation. Although previous studies have examined digital memory and influencer communication, limited attention has been paid to how Vietnamese key opinion leaders (KOLs) and their audiences collaboratively construct commemorative discourse during nationally significant events. This study investigates how Vietnamese KOLs and their audiences co-construct digital commemoration on Facebook during the 50th anniversary of Vietnam’s reunification day. A qualitative corpus-based design was employed to analyse 32 Facebook posts published by 13 prominent KOLs and 160 highly engaged audience comments using an integrated framework of critical discourse analysis and digital linguistic ethnography. The findings reveal that KOLs construct commemorative meanings through evaluative language, personalised storytelling, and multimodal symbolism, while audiences actively participate through expressions of alignment, emotional resonance, reflection, and occasional critique. These interactions demonstrate that commemorative meanings are continuously negotiated through linguistic choices, visual resources, and platform-mediated engagement. Digital commemoration on Facebook functions as a dynamic and participatory process in which influencers and audiences jointly shape public memory, extending current understanding of digital commemoration, influencer-mediated discourse, and online civic engagement in contemporary Vietnam.