Abstract
BackgroundMedical crowdfunding is a growing phenomenon, and newspapers are publishing on the topic. This research analyzed how illness-related crowdfunding and crowdfunding campaigns have recently been represented in newspapers that are popular in the United States and Canada.MethodsA sample of 336 articles about medical crowdfunding published during the two year time period from October 7, 2015 to October 6, 2017 was produced using a Factiva search of the English language newspapers with the largest Canadian and United States readership. A coding frame was developed for and applied to the sample to analyze content.ResultsArticles portrayed crowdfunding campaigns positively (43.75%) and neutrally (47.92%), but rarely negatively (4.76%). Articles mostly mentioned the crowdfunding phenomenon with a neutral characterization (93.75%). Few (8.63%) articles mentioned ethical issues with the phenomenon of crowdfunding. Ailments most commonly precipitating the need for a campaign included cancer (49.11%) and rare disease (as stated by the article, 36.01%). Most articles (83.04%) note where donations and contributions can be made, and 59.23% included a hyperlink to an online crowdfunding campaign website. Some articles (26.49%) mentioned a specific monetary goal for the fundraising campaign. Of the 70 (20.83%) articles that indicated the treatment sought may be inefficacious, was unproven, was experimental or lacked regulatory approval, 56 (80.00%) noted where contributions can be made and 36 (51.43%) hyperlinked directly to an online crowdfunding campaign.ConclusionsCrowdfunding campaigns are portrayed positively much more often than negatively, many articles promote campaigns for unproven therapies, and links directly to crowdfunding campaign webpages are present in most articles. Overall, crowdfunding is often either implicitly or explicitly endorsed.
Highlights
Over the past several years, the flow of funds through online crowdfunding has grown at an explosive rate.[1,2] This has coincided with the rapid growth of companies providing crowdfunding platforms
This research analyzed how illness-related crowdfunding and crowdfunding campaigns have recently been represented in newspapers that are popular in the United States and Canada
A sample of 336 articles about medical crowdfunding published during the two year time period from October 7, 2015 to October 6, 2017 was produced using a Factiva search of the English language newspapers with the largest Canadian and United States readership
Summary
Over the past several years, the flow of funds through online crowdfunding has grown at an explosive rate.[1,2] This has coincided with the rapid growth of companies providing crowdfunding platforms. GoFundMe was valued at approximately $600 million when it struck a venture capital deal in 2015,[3] and has since been expanding: in January 2017, the company acquired the platform CrowdRise,[3] and in April 2018 it acquired YouCaring.[4] major uses of crowdfunding include charity and entrepreneurship, personal campaigns relating to health concerns are common online,[5] with platforms targeting this in their advertising.[6,7].
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