Faculty Publications

Carnivalizing Other’s Misery: From Human Ice Cream Sundae To Polar Plunge To Ice Bucket Challenge

Document Type

Article

Keywords

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Asian tsunami, Baby Landon, fundraising campaign, Polar Plunge, public relations

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Cultural Studies - Critical Methodologies

Volume

20

Issue

6

First Page

539

Last Page

541

Abstract

Reflecting on Shing-Ling Chen’s experience of being a Leukemia child’s mother encountering others’ seemingly hurtful support of her misery, the authors address the ethics of having fun activities as fundraisers for victims of traumatic events. The authors question the adequacy of hosting entertaining activities to fundraise for victims of Asian Tsunami, or patients of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; that is, the ALS ice-bucket challenge) and cancers (e.g., polar plunge), and so on. The social dynamics and communication processes involved in these events are analyzed.

Original Publication Date

12-1-2020

DOI of published version

10.1177/1532708619897899

Repository

UNI ScholarWorks, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa

Language

en

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