With the development of digital technology and social media, the traditionally private form
of death and mourning have entered the public space, and online mourning for public figures in social
media has become a highly publicized media event. This paper analyzes the practice of online mourning
in social media and its cultural value under the theoretical framework of James W.Carey “ritual view
of communication” by taking the content and comments of microblogs related to Kobe’s death as
samples. The study found that in the ritual field constructed by social media for online mourning, the
ritual call of mainstream media and multiple ritual symbols jointly write the unique group memory of
Internet users, and eventually people realize the sharing of self-expression, good maintenance of social
relations, and further promote people’s identification with sports culture and sports spirit, which also
has important significance for the construction of sports culture in China.