Illness Expression And Cancer Disenchantment:Short Video Practice Of Anti-cancer Bloggers

In the digital era,short video has gradually become a new way for people to understand and record the world.With the help of short video media,disadvantaged groups such as cancer patients not only have visibility in virtual spaces,but also greatly change their lives in reality.Cancer has always been regarded as an extremely complex and serious disease,which not only brings dual physical and mental suffering to patients,but also imposes heavy moral shackles on patients due to its social and cultural metaphors.Symbolic meanings such as "evil","unknown",and "uncontrollable" are wrapped around"cancer" like ghosts,humiliating cancer patients through moral judgment.However,with the popularity of short videos,some cancer patients have become anti cancer bloggers.They express cancer illness in an open environment,tell life stories after the illness arrives,actively reveal and resist metaphors attached to cancer,and promote social awareness and understanding of cancer.This paper selects cancer bloggers in Tiktok and Quick worker platforms as the main research objects,using the methods of online fieldwork,text analysis and in-depth interviews,to analyze their expressions of illness in short video practice,and how these new discourses disenchant cancer from the concept of "illness" of Arthur Kleinman and the theory of "metaphor of disease" of Susan Sontag.Research has found that in the short video practice of anti-cancer bloggers,firstly,their illness expressions exhibit documentary,technical,and consumer characteristics.Secondly,they have reshaped the three main media images of "cancer fighters","ordinary people",and "experienced people",which are different from the facial and dramatic image portrayed by mainstream media,and this self-construction process is influenced by the social interaction of short video media.Finally,they deconstruct the moral and personality metaphors of cancer by interpreting illness,and generate new metaphors of "fighting cancer requires vitality" and "fighting cancer to overcome adversity" in the era of digital media.Under the empowerment of short video media,anti-cancer bloggers actively express illness,also,they change and reconstruct the meaning of cancer and cancer patients in the mainstream culture in the contest with the meaning of illness.Under the empowerment of short video media,anti--cancer bloggers actively express illness.They change and reconstruct the meaning of cancer and cancer patients in popular culture in the process of comparing with the meaning of illness.