https://doi.org/10.4081/qrmh.2019.7875
#ttc on Instagram: a multimodal discourse analysis of the treatment experience of patients pursuing in vitro fertilization
Submitted: 11 October 2018
Accepted: 16 February 2019
Published: 18 April 2019
Accepted: 16 February 2019
Abstract Views: 2845
PDF: 1343
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All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Authors
While searching the Internet for health information is now commonplace, giving and receiving medical expertise on social media platforms such as Instagram (IG) is underexplored. In order to investigate the ways in which social media platforms are a resource for seeking medical expertise, we employed a multimodal discourse analysis; specifically, we focused on the hashtag #ttc and the engagement of the IG community it comprised. We examined three main themes around medical expertise during treatment indexed by the hashtag: treatment protocol choices, treatment side effects and pregnancy diagnosis/confirmation. Our findings suggest that social media platforms provide a new arena in which patients can challenge medical expertise by circumventing it or adopting lay expertise instead of practitioner suggestions. We close with research implications and suggestions for further research.
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How to Cite
Johnson, Bethany, Margaret M. Quinlan, and Nathan Pope. 2019. “#ttc on Instagram: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of the Treatment Experience of Patients Pursuing in Vitro Fertilization”. Qualitative Research in Medicine and Healthcare 3 (1). https://doi.org/10.4081/qrmh.2019.7875.
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