What Communication Strategies do Activists Use? Analyzing Web Homepages of Medical Marijuana Activists and AIDS Activists using Multimodal Discourse Analysis
Carvalho do Amaral, Janaynne; Schneider, Jodi
Loading…
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121154
Description
Title
What Communication Strategies do Activists Use? Analyzing Web Homepages of Medical Marijuana Activists and AIDS Activists using Multimodal Discourse Analysis
Little is known about whether or how argumentative strategies have changed with the rise in online activism in health. Recent work on activist argumentation online examines fashion sustainability (Mercuri, 2023) and environmental risks (Brambilla, 2020). In 2015, after the mobilization of activists, Brazil legalized one form of medical cannabis by prescription only. In 2016, the Medical Cannabis Research and Patient Support Association (APEPI) registered as a Brazilian non-governmental organization focusing on “awareness, demystification and democratization of the medical use of cannabis” (APEPI, n.d.). Our project is a case study using netnography and discourse analysis to explore materials from APEPI’s early cannabis activism such as news, websites, interviews with the activists, and documentaries as well as the organization’s recent email newsletters. We analyze the visual and textual argumentative strategies that online cannabis activists have used and compare them to strategies used by AIDS activists in the 1980’s, before the rise in online communication: (1) redefining the legitimate participants in discourse about the disease by questioning the authority of doctors and researchers and (2) translating scientific information for patients while sharing patients’ needs with doctors and researchers (Fabj & Sobnosky, 2017). We hypothesize that online cannabis activists are using the same argumentative strategies adopted by AIDS activists.
Use this login method if you
don't
have an
@illinois.edu
email address.
(Oops, I do have one)
IDEALS migrated to a new platform on June 23, 2022. If you created
your account prior to this date, you will have to reset your password
using the forgot-password link below.
