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
Open Access
Closed
Topics
empirical research multilingual writers

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

Cites in this index (16)

  1. Gallagher et al. (2023)
    Required Templates: An Assemblage Theory Analysis of How Template Character Lim…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Konrad (2021)
    Access Fatigue: The Rhetorical Work of Disability in Everyday Life
    College English
  3. Garrison-Joyner et al. (2020)
    Lapses in Literacy: Cultural Accessibility in Graphic Health Communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Yam (2020)
    Visualizing Birth Stories from the Margin: Toward a Reproductive Justice Model …
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  5. Ledbetter (2018)
    The Rhetorical Work of YouTube’s Beauty Community: Relationship- and Identity-B…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
Show all 16 →
  1. Browning et al. (2017)
    Teaching a “Critical Accessibility Case Study”
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Mehlenbacher (2017)
    Crowdfunding Science: Exigencies and Strategies in an Emerging Genre of Science…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Holladay (2017)
    Classified Conversations: Psychiatry and Tactical Technical Communication in On…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Jones (2016)
    Found Things: Genre, Narrative, and Identification in a Networked Activist Orga…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Jones et al. (2016)
    Disrupting the Past to Disrupt the Future: An Antenarrative of Technical Commun…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  6. Jones (2016)
    The Technical Communicator as Advocate
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  7. Cushman (2015)
    “Write Me a Better Story”: Writing Stories as a Diagnostic and Repair Practice …
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  8. Kerschbaum (2014)
    On Rhetorical Agency and Disclosing Disability in Academic Writing
    Rhetoric Review
  9. Walters (2010)
    Toward an Accessible Pedagogy: Dis/ability, Multimodality, and Universal Design…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  10. Owens (2009)
    Confronting Rhetorical Disability
    Written Communication
  11. Palmeri (2006)
    Disability Studies, Cultural Analysis, and the Critical Practice of Technical C…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
Also cites 12 works outside this index ↓
  1. 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.02.008
     ↗
  2. 10.1177/1461444814558911
     ↗
  3. 10.1016/j.amjmed.2018.05.020
     ↗
  4. 10.1016/j.amjmed.2009.04.012
     ↗
  5. 10.1145/3068755.3068758
     ↗
  6. 10.7330/9781607327585.c010
     ↗
  7. 10.1186/s12992-019-0519-1
     ↗
  8. 10.1371/journal.pone.0229760
     ↗
  9. 10.4324/9781315231501
     ↗
  10. 10.18061/dsq.v37i2.5487
     ↗
  11. 10.1002/hast.645
     ↗
  12. 10.1109/TPC.2016.2614742
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 12 View in citation network →

Related Articles

  1. College Composition and Communication Dec 2025
    Writing Transfer beyond FYC ↗
    Ryan P. Shepherd
    first-year composition transfer empirical research multimodality multilingual writers
  2. Composition Forum Oct 2025
    Adding to the Qualitative Research Method Toolkit: Eliciting and Coding Participant Drawings ↗
    writing across the curriculum empirical research qualitative research multimodality multilingual writers
  3. Pedagogy Apr 2025
    Writing the Methods ↗
    Tom Sura; Kristin VanEyk
    first-year composition empirical research multilingual writers revision
  4. Journal of Business and Technical Communication Jul 2024
    Content Analysis, Construct Validity, and Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Technical and Professional Communication and Graduate Research Preparation ↗
    Stuart Deets; Caitlin Baulch; Alison Obright; Dan Card
    empirical research multimodality artificial intelligence professional writing multilingual writers
  5. Written Communication Jan 2023
    Modeling Mobile Writing: Applying Sociocognitive Models of Writing to Mobile Contexts ↗
    Joel Schneier
    empirical research multimodality multilingual writers