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Shooting Pains: Addressing Illness-Related Pain Through Video Autobiography, Broderick Fox

Broderick Fox

This paper examines autobiographical videos and emergent uses of social software sites such as YouTube to explore the possibilities of first-person media as a pain management tool. Beyond the therapeutic possibilities, the paper also explores the potential of such personal media acts as a means of breaking down taboos around pain and illness – offering up models for managing, discussing, and even ‘performing’ pain in the public sphere.