Influencing through advocacy: Parents of children with disability giving and seeking support on Instagram

In this article, I examine how parents raising children with disabilities are using Instagram to advocate for the rights of their children, and how these practices can be understood as a form of non-commercial influencing. I study how these practices enable the creation of supportive networks as the...

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Main Author: JOHANSEN STINE LIV
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Sciendo 2025-05-01
Series:Nordic Journal of Media Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2025-0007
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author JOHANSEN STINE LIV
author_facet JOHANSEN STINE LIV
author_sort JOHANSEN STINE LIV
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description In this article, I examine how parents raising children with disabilities are using Instagram to advocate for the rights of their children, and how these practices can be understood as a form of non-commercial influencing. I study how these practices enable the creation of supportive networks as the basis of performing advocacy regarding disability rights. Based on interviews with six mothers who use Instagram to share insights from their everyday lives, the analysis explores how their content curation and network building provides support and enables advocacy with the purpose of influencing public opinions about disability. Despite lacking commercial interests, their sustained engagement, storytelling, and ability to mobilise audiences position them as influencers within the online disability community.
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spelling doaj-art-cea5a2aaed5b45d2adec2eda91974c7d2025-08-20T02:24:04ZengSciendoNordic Journal of Media Studies2003-184X2025-05-017111212910.2478/njms-2025-0007Influencing through advocacy: Parents of children with disability giving and seeking support on InstagramJOHANSEN STINE LIV0Department of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, DenmarkIn this article, I examine how parents raising children with disabilities are using Instagram to advocate for the rights of their children, and how these practices can be understood as a form of non-commercial influencing. I study how these practices enable the creation of supportive networks as the basis of performing advocacy regarding disability rights. Based on interviews with six mothers who use Instagram to share insights from their everyday lives, the analysis explores how their content curation and network building provides support and enables advocacy with the purpose of influencing public opinions about disability. Despite lacking commercial interests, their sustained engagement, storytelling, and ability to mobilise audiences position them as influencers within the online disability community.https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2025-0007parentsinfluencerschildren with disabilityonline advocacydiscourses of disability
spellingShingle JOHANSEN STINE LIV
Influencing through advocacy: Parents of children with disability giving and seeking support on Instagram
Nordic Journal of Media Studies
parents
influencers
children with disability
online advocacy
discourses of disability
title Influencing through advocacy: Parents of children with disability giving and seeking support on Instagram
title_full Influencing through advocacy: Parents of children with disability giving and seeking support on Instagram
title_fullStr Influencing through advocacy: Parents of children with disability giving and seeking support on Instagram
title_full_unstemmed Influencing through advocacy: Parents of children with disability giving and seeking support on Instagram
title_short Influencing through advocacy: Parents of children with disability giving and seeking support on Instagram
title_sort influencing through advocacy parents of children with disability giving and seeking support on instagram
topic parents
influencers
children with disability
online advocacy
discourses of disability
url https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2025-0007
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