ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the way memetic logics, hashtags and online engagement coalesce during times of intense trauma and illness. Through a careful analysis of the case of Brittany Maynard, a woman diagnosed with a brain tumour and who advocated for ‘death with dignity’ legislation, and the subsequent debates around her advocacy in brain tumour social media communities, this chapter discovers the complex engagements that underlie the digital communication of disabled actors. Using media studies and disability studies as a framework, the chapter interrogates representation and meaning making online, in particular on Twitter. Focusing predominately on the way Maynard’s story was tweeted about in the Brain Tumor Social Media tweet chats (#btsm), this research breaks down the way mediation and re-mediation of content around trauma and disability enable suffering digital media users to reconstitute broken meaning making schema in powerful ways. The particular focus on memetic logics and digital affordances contributes to media studies and disability studies by offering an insight into the actions of real sufferers online.
