Communicating Cancer on the Internet

Abstract

In the article, I am concerned with evaluating visual representations and Internet narratives of a relatively new phenomenon of male breast cancer (MBC) that is gaining pace and publicity in the United States. Keeping in mind that breast cancer is much more common among women, MBC diagnosis and treatment rely on experiences that have been developed in women and men experience something of a “gender misfit” (Neighmond 2016). The primary representations and narratives considered –the male part of the SCAR Project, the Camp Lejeune Story, Oliver Bogler’s personal blog Entering a World of Pink and Breastcancer.org community forum –caused me to question the strict boundaries in American breast cancer milieu, dictated by the politics and power of the new media (Donovan/Flynn 2007). I argue that these completely different representations and narratives of men with breast cancer form a specific case study for analyzing health narratives not yet treated in communication studies. The frame of the research demonstrates the unique positioning of MBC in relation to global communication systems where men’s health and gender-tailored solutions have surprisingly been completely overlooked.