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网上直播葬礼 把距离拉近或拉远？

These days a lot of people say they “live on the Web” - checking sports scores, reading online newspapers, downloading music and videos, and so forth¹.

现在有很多人说他们“在网上过日子”，他们上网看运动比赛分数、阅读网路报纸、上网下载音乐和影片等等。

Now, people are also dying on the Web. At least their funerals are being streamed online in increasing numbers, as a convenience to distant families, friends and fans.

现在人们也“在网上死去”，至少越来越多人的葬礼在网上转播，好让他们在远方的家人、朋友和粉丝都能参与。

Farewell Webcasts for international celebrities² are quite common. Michael Jackson’s and Whitney Houston’s memorial services were seen by millions online.

为国际名人举办网路直播告别仪式很常见。有数以百万计的人在网上观看迈克尔.杰克逊和惠特尼.休斯顿的追思仪式。

But services for ordinary folks are being watched as well.

Several companies are training funeral homes in video techniques and providing them with the software to produce Webcasts of their ceremonies.

A company called FuneralOne in Michigan helped mortuaries stream more than 1,000 Webcast funerals in 2010. And it sells DVD digital recordings³ of memorial services as well.

密西根州一家名为“第一葬礼”的公司在2010年举行了1千多次的网路直播葬礼。这家公司还卖追思仪式的DVD光盘。

“We are in a YouTube society now,” Joseph Joachim IV, founder⁴ of FuneralOne, told the Associated Press.

“第一葬礼”创办人约瑟夫.乔金四世对美联社说：“我们现在在一个Youtube社会。”

The “memorial casts” allow even casual friends of the deceased, who would not spend the time or money to travel great distances to pay their respects, to tune⁵ in.

告别式直播甚至让亡者的普通朋友也能观看，他们可能不愿花时间或钱飞很远向亡者致意。

For instance, Ronald Rich, a firefighter in North Carolina, called the mother of a friend who had just died and told her that he could not make the funeral because of a snowstorm in the nearby mountains. The mother told him that the funeral would be streamed live on the Web.

例如北卡罗来纳州一名消防队员罗纳德.里奇，他打电话给刚过世的朋友的母亲，因为附近山区发生暴风雪导致他无法出席朋友的葬礼。朋友的母亲告诉他，葬礼会在网上直播。

“It was comforting to me,” Rich said, adding that he planned to watch the service a second time with other firefighters.

里奇说：“这令人欣慰。”他还说，他计划要和其他消防队员再一同观看葬礼。

The online-funeral idea has been slow to develop in an industry that values solemnity, etiquette⁶, and privacy. Families that would like to make a loved one’s funeral available online - but don’t really want to open it to the world - can send an access code and password to those who knew and cared for the deceased.

网路葬礼的想法在一个重视庄严、礼仪和隐私的行业发展得很慢。一些家庭虽然想让挚爱的人的葬礼也在网路转播，但不想全世界都看到，他们可以将密码传给那些认识并关心去世的人。

They could be halfway⁷ across America - or halfway around the world.

这些人有可能在美国另一端，或地球另一端。