Is it all about storytelling? Living and learning hereditary cancer on Twitter

Abstract

Storytelling has long been used as a theoretical framework for understanding how we share information and learn about health – and illness – online. But is it all about storytelling on social media platforms? To explore how and to what extent personal stories shape health content on these platforms, this article presents an analysis of tweets discussing the BRCA gene mutation – a hereditary cancer condition. Theoretically, the study advances a new conceptual framework to explore social media practices within issue-based and long-lived social media threads. Methodologically, it develops a platform-oriented discourse analytic approach. Findings show that non-narrative content is actually more common than storytelling in Twitter conversations about BRCA, with a number of patient advocates acting as gatekeepers of scientific information. Most BRCA storytelling is mediated and shared in third person, with those at the heart of these stories becoming exemplars within the BRCA ‘subculture’.