Narrative Strategy For Medical Crowdfunding On New Media

With the development of new financing methods in the networked society,under the background of the underdeveloped social security system in China,more and more patients and their families have to choose crowdfunding as the way to raise the treatment funds.Using the method of narrative analysis,this paper studied 100 texts of medical crowdfunding on “QingSongChou” platform from February 28,2018 to May 1.It is found that the requests used a series of strategies to construct the identity of the patient in order to build a weak image worthy of help.The emotional narrative of the family as the main line is to motivate the potential donors,and to downplay the needs in order to maintain self-esteem.Narrative ability and the ability to use the crowdfunding platform can help patients gain economic and emotional support.This paper further reflects on the problems of the national social security system behind the phenomenon of medical crowdfunding.This paper will summarize the research in six chapters.The first chapter is the introduction part,which introduces the origin of the researchers’ interest in the research of medical crowdfunding,as well as the significance,innovation and difficulties of the research.The second chapter is the literature review part,which includes the new media platform,narrative and identity construction,disease narrative and medical crowdfunding,as well as the infomation of China’s social security system and basic medical and health system.Chapter three describes the method of this research(narrative analysis)and its operation process.It introduces the basic situation and operation characteristics of the research data source platform – Easy Fundraising platform.Chapter four elaborates the final coding results,including three sections: 1.Identity construction: establishing a worthy image of the weak,including building a true and reliable image of the patient,shaping the image of the illness person,and establishing a positive image of the patient;2.Emotional mobilization: the narration is mainly family stories based on tragic structure to mobilize the moral sense of potential donors;3.Fading the demand of money: reducing the harm of self-esteem in the way of raising by a third person,and the real demand for money will be placed at the end of the article following the need to raise money.At the same time,it will guarantee the use of money and accompany with some expressions of step back.The fifth chapter discusses some problems found in the study,such as the relationship between the success of crowdsourcing projects and the social capital of the helpers and their media literacy,the relationship between the prosperity of medical crowdsourcing and the national social security system,and the discussion of the alternative directions for further research.Chapter 6 is the conclusion part,which summarizes the research.