Technical Communication Quarterly Jan 2023

“It Makes Everything Just Another Story”: A Mixed Methods Study of Medical Storytelling on GoFundMe

Kari Campeau University of Colorado Denver ; Yee Thao Hamline University

Abstract

This article reports on a study of 65 randomly sampled medical crowdfunding campaigns and five interviews with campaign authors. We found that authors innovated technical and professional communication (TPC) tools to narrate their illness experiences, coordinate digital audiences, and compel action. Thus, these authors practice TPC as care seeking and caregiving. Crowdfunding platforms, however, situate authors to individualize structural problems in ways that preempt collective action. We conclude with pedagogical implications of our findings.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
2023-01-02
DOI
10.1080/10572252.2022.2047792
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Topics
writing pedagogy professional writing empirical research
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Wickman (2025)
    Emerging Perspectives in Medical Case Report Writing: How Guidelines Support In…
    Technical Communication Quarterly

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