Sick kids versus whom? Childhood disability and charitable campaigns on Instagram

Bibliographic Data

ID7151071
AuthorsDaniela Zuzunaga Zegarra (0000-0003-2092-1715, Queen's University, corresponding author), Thomas Abrams (0000-0002-3908-4446, Queen's University)
Year2025
Volume31
Issue2
Pages540-558
Publication date2025-04-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueConvergence The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1354-8565 • E-ISSN: 1748-7382
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/13548565231211310
OpenAlexW4388098240
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited50

Platform media are changing the disability charity landscape. This paper employs a hybrid critical disability studies – platform media studies lens to explore the SickKids VS campaign, aiming to ‘fight’ childhood illness and disability. Employing a social media thematic analysis, we analyzed social media content distributed through the campaign, consisting of images, videos, and captions ( n =620). We found three dominant narratives: heroic sick kids, crumbling infrastructure, and informational content. Each trend, we argue, emerges within a changing platform mediascape, whereby charitable audiences must be cultivated and curated over a long-term process, rather than in a single moment, as in telethon fundraising. We ask how disability is framed in each of those narratives, and how disability studies might respond to these formulations in the political economy of platform media. We end by exploring the strategies disability studies can take to combat the marginalizing effects of such charitable campaigns

Art · Disability studies · Media studies · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Qualitative research · Social media · Social science · Sociology · Thematic analysis · Children's Rights and Participation · Disability Rights and Representation · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media

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