CANCER NARRATIVES ON INSTAGRAM: VISUAL AND EMOTIONAL FRAMINGS IN THE TURKISH CONTEXT

This study explores how Turkish Instagram users visually and emotionally narrate their experiences with cancer, contributing to the growing field of digital health communication from a non-Western perspective. Drawing on framing theory and affect studies, the research investigates the use of episodic and thematic frames as well as emotional tone in user-generated Instagram posts tagged with cancer-related hashtags. The study adopts a qualitative, interpretive methodology based on multimodal visual-textual analysis. A total of 100 publicly shared Instagram posts were purposively sampled and analysed according to framing type and emotional expression. Findings reveal that episodic framing, emphasising individual experiences of diagnosis, treatment, and survival, dominates the dataset, often supported by emotionally intense visual self-representations. Thematic and mixed frames, while less common, are used to advocate for early detection and to reflect systemic issues in healthcare. Emotional tones vary widely, ranging from hope and resilience to fear and vulnerability. Instagram functions not merely as a space of personal expression but as a narrative infrastructure where illness is reframed, identity is performed, and affective solidarity is built. The study underscores the significance of Instagram in shaping visual illness narratives and highlights the platform’s affordances for both empowerment and emotional labour. By foregrounding a Turkish context, the study also fills an important gap in the literature on digital health communication, which has so far been predominantly shaped by Western perspectives. It calls for further research into cross-cultural, longitudinal, and audience-centred aspects of digital storytelling in health contexts.