Sixth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

Hospice care promises individual (medical) treatment, choice, and privacy for the dying and their families. At the same time, the hospice care movements stem from activism which strives for public, legislative, and political recognition. In recent years, many hospice care homes have opened their (online) doors and increased their engagement with the community through online participation. This can be seen in proud participation on short videos and testimonies. The changing media environment has encouraged changing communicative methods for marketing the hospice care services that used to be dependent on physician referrals to gain customers. Based on content analysis of various hospice care providers’ online presence (websites and social media sites) in the US, Canada, UK, and Finland, it appears that hospices use online media in two main ways. First is the informative aspect, which aims to raise awareness of what hospice is and what services they provide. Second, the emotional or affective aspect appeals to people in a difficult life situation, and hospice communication used various tools to create images of warm, caring and supportive place for dying people and their families. In this paper, I discuss how online communication has provided opportunities for marketing “a nice place to die”, and how the hospice care providers balance between informative and emotional communication as a response to questions of private and public aspects of their work.