Elaine Xu, Terence Lee







Illness bloggers and sickness scams: Communication ethics and the 'Belle' Gibson saga

In April 2017, 'Belle' Gibson was found guilty of contravening the Australian Consumer Law because she sold her recipe book and mobile app using deceptive business practices. Using the 'Belle' Gibson saga as a case study, this paper examines questions of communication ethics and the effect that technology has on our ethical behaviours and practice. It contends that technology has altered our perceptions of authenticity and credibility as well as our social relations and sense of 'intimacy' with online strangers.

Keywords: illness narratives, truth telling, communication ethics, social software, Australia


References

  1. Australian Press Council (APC) (2001) Guideline: Health and medical matters. Available online at http://www.presscouncil.org.au/document-search/guideline-health/, accessed on 10 September 2016
  2. Australian Press Council (APC) (2011a) Standard: Suicide reporting. Available online at http://www.presscouncil.org.au/document-search/standard-suicide-reporting/, accessed on 8 September 2016
  3. Australian Press Council (APC) (2011b) Standards. Available online at http://www.presscouncil.org.au/standards/, accessed on 10 September 2016
  4. Avdulova, Ksenia (2014) Wellness: A conversation with Belle Gibson, creator of the Whole Pantry App. Available online at http://visual-therapy.com/blog/wellness-a-conversation-with-belle-gibson-creator-of-the-whole-pantry-app/, accessed on 22 May 2016
  5. Banning, Stephen A. and Sweetser, Kaye D. (2007) How much do they think it affects them and whom do they believe?: Comparing the third-person effect and credibility of blogs and traditional media, Communication Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 4 pp 451-466
  6. Barker, Garry (2014a) Good stuff in the pantry, Sydney Morning Herald, 28 July
  7. Barker, Garry (2014b) Pop into the pantry app for a healthier lifestyle, Sydney Morning Herald, 23 July
  8. Belle Gibson uncovered (2015) The Belle Gibson files: Belle Gibson on being discredited, Available online at http://bellegibson.net/belle-gibson-on-being-discredited/, accessed on 17 May 2016
  9. Bury, Mike (2001) Illness narratives: Fact or fiction?, Sociology of Health and Illness, Vol. 23, No. 3 pp 263-285
  10. Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) (2015) Enforceable undertaking, Victoria, Australia, Consumer Affairs Victoria
  11. Cavanagh, Rebekah (2015) Consumer Affairs Victoria steps up investigation into Belle Gibson, Herald Sun, 2 November
  12. Christians, Clifford (2011) Primordial issues in communication ethics, Fortner, Robert and Fackler, P. (eds) The handbook of global communication and media ethics: Volume I, West Sussex, Blackwell Publishing pp 1-19
  13. Cunningham, Julie M. and Feldman, Marc D. (2011) Munchausen by internet: Current perspectives and three new cases, Psychosomatics, Vol. 52, No. 2 pp 185-189
  14. Dasey, Annette (2014) The whole story, Herald Sun, 23 November
  15. Davey, Melissa (2016) Belle Gibson video submitted to court sparks condemnation over cancer claims, Guardian, 14 September
  16. Do, Emma (2015) Why did it take this long for cancer faker Belle Gibson's lies to be revealed? Available online at http://www.vice.com/read/why-did-it-take-us-this-long-to-call-bullshit-on-belle-gibson, accessed on 12 April 2016
  17. Donelly, Beau and Toscano, Nick (2015a) Apple pulls plug on promos for Belle Gibson's The whole pantry app, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 March
  18. Donelly, Beau and Toscano, Nick (2015b) Belle Gibson on 60 Minutes: Don't expect an apology, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 June
  19. Donelly, Beau and Toscano, Nick (2015c) Belle Gibson US book launch for The whole pantry cancelled after concerns she faked cancer, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 March
  20. Donelly, Beau and Toscano, Nick (2015d) Charity money promised by 'inspirational' health app developer Belle Gibson not handed over, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 March
  21. Donelly, Beau and Toscano, Nick (2015e) Publisher Penguin pulls Belle Gibson cook book The Whole Pantry, Sydney Morning Herald, 16 March
  22. Donelly, Beau and Toscano, Nick (2015f) Refund calls over 'cancer survivor' Belle Gibson's book and app sales, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 March
  23. Donelly, Beau and Toscano, Nick (2016) Penguin was warned on Gibson con, Age, 21 September
  24. Federal Court of Australia penal notice (2017) Issued to Annabelle Natalie Gibson on 7 April 2017
  25. Feldman, Marc D. (2000) Munchausen by internet: Detecting factitious illness and crisis on the internet, Southern Medical Journal, Vol. 93, No. 7 pp 669-672
  26. FreeTV Australia (2015) Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice, Australia, FreeTV Australia
  27. Fuchs, Christian, Hofkirchner, Wolfgang, Schafranek, Matthias, Raffl, Celina, Sandoval, Marisol and Bichler, Robert (2010) Theoretical foundations of the web: Cognition, communication, and co-operation. Towards an understanding of web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, Future Internet, Vol. 2 pp 41-59
  28. Greenberg, Sharon, Yaari, Eti and Bar-Ilan, Judit (2013) Perceived credibility of blogs on the internet – The influence of age on the extent of criticism, Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, Vol. 65, No. 1 pp 4-18
  29. Griffiths, E. J., Kampa, A., Pearce, C., Sakellariou, A. and Solan, M. C. (2009) Munchausen's Syndrome by Google, The Annals of The Royal College of Surgeons of England, Vol. 91 pp 159-160
  30. Guilliatt, Richard (2015) Belle Gibson, Amanda Rootsey, Jess Ainscough and others fight cancer with 'wellness', Australian, 4 April
  31. Hampton, Keith, and Wellman, Barry (2003) Neighbouring in netville: How the internet supports community and social capital in a wired suburb, City & Community, Vol. 2, No. 4 pp 277-311
  32. Herring, Susan (2013) Discourse in Web 2.0: Familiar, reconfigured, and emergent, Tannen, Deborah and Trester, Anna (eds) Discourse 2.0: Language and new media, Washington, DC, Georgetown University Press pp 1-26
  33. Hsu, Chin-Lung and Lin, Judy Chuan-Chuan (2008) Acceptance of blog usage: The roles of technology acceptance, social influence and knowledge sharing motivation, Information & Management, Vol. 45, No. 1 pp 65-74
  34. Introna, Lucas (2007) Making sense of ICT, new media and ethics, Avgerou, Chrisanthi, Mansell, Robin, Quah, Danny and Silverstone, Roger (eds) The Oxford handbook of information and communication technologies, New York, Oxford University Press pp 314-333
  35. Jones, Rachael (2014) Australian app creator's triumph with Apple watch, Age, 13 September
  36. Kemp, Simon (2017) Digital in 2017 global overview: A collection of internet, social media and mobile data from around the world. Available online at https://wearesocial.com/sg/blog/2017/01/digital-in-2017-global-overview, accessed on 24 April 2017
  37. Lal, Chloe (2015) Belle Gibson silence over wellness app scandal, Woman's Day, 19 March
  38. Leimuma¨ki, Anna (2012) What does falling ill mean? Illness narratives as elucidation of experience expertise, Cohen, Esther, Toker, Leona, Consonni, Manuela and Dror, Otniel E. (eds) Knowledge and pain, New York, Brill pp 259-292
  39. Litoff, Alyssa (2013) Uncovering dying daughter hoax that lured in several celebrities, ABC News, 6 November
  40. Marchi, Regina (2012) With Facebook, blogs, and fake news, teens reject journalistic 'objectivity', Journal of Communication Inquiry, Vol. 36, No. 3 pp 246-262
  41. McCosker, Anthony (2008) Blogging illness: Recovering in public, M/C Journal, Vol 11, No. 6. Available online at http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/104, accessed on 25 May 2017
  42. Miller, Megan (2014) To Belle and back, Herald Sun, 6 December
  43. Morris, Steven (2016) Violinist Bethan Doci jailed for £300,000 cancer fraud, The Guardian, 2 December
  44. Myrick, Jessica, Holton, Avery, Himelboim, Itai and Love, Brad (2016) #Stupidcancer: Exploring a typology of social support and the role of emotional expression in a social media community, Journal of Health Communication, Vol. 31, No. 5 pp 596-605
  45. Nine Entertainment (2015) Belle Gibson: The whole hoax, Nine Entertainment, 28 June Available online at http://www.9jumpin.com.au/show/60minutes/stories/2015/june/the-whole-hoax/, accessed on 17 May 2016
  46. Omatta, Boniface (2011) The ethics of representation and the internet, Fortner, Robert and Fackler, P. (eds) The handbook of global communication and media ethics: Volume II, West Sussex, Blackwell Publishing pp 785-802
  47. Piotrowski, Daniel (2015) Exclusive: 'I understand everyone's anger, but this is not OK': Whole Pantry founder Belle Gibson breaks her silence to condemn 'malicious' campaig against her over 'fake' cancer claims, Daily Mail Australia, 17 March
  48. Razer, Helen (2016) Razer: Belle Gibson's hocus pocus survived on our fascistic irrationalism, Crikey, 10 May. Available online at http://www.crikey.com.au/2016/05/10/razer-belle-gibsons-hocus-pocus-survived-rampant-irrationalism/, accessed on 25 May 2016
  49. Ressler, Pamela K., Bradshaw, Ylisabyth S., Gualtieri, Lisa and Chui, Kenneth K. H. (2012) Communicating the experience of chronic pain and illness through blogging, Journal of Medical Internet Research, Vol. 14, No. 5 e143
  50. Rojek, Chris (2017) The case of Belle Gibson, social media, and what it means for understanding leisure under digital praxis, Annals of Leisure Research pp 1-5
  51. Sams, Lauren. (2015) An honest account of our experience with Belle Gibson, Cosmopolitan, 17 March. Available online at http://www.cosmopolitan.com.au/health-lifestyle/lifestyle/2015/3/an-honest-account-of-our-experience-with-belle-gibson/, accessed on 17 May 2016
  52. Sharp, Annette (2015) Cosmo defend failure to research Belle cancer claims and says she can keep Fun Fearless Female Award, Daily Telegraph, 24 April
  53. Silverstone, Roger (2003) Proper distance: Towards an ethics for cyberspace, Liestøl, Gunnar, Morrison, Andrew and Rasmussen, Terje (eds) Digital media revisited: Theoretical and conceptual innovations in digital domains, Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press pp 469-490
  54. Smith, Michelle (2015) The 'hole' in the pantry story: Should Penguin have validated belle Gibson's cancer claims?, The Conversation, 16 March. Available online at http://theconversation.com/the-hole-in-the-pantry-story-should-penguin-have-validated-belle-gibsons-cancer-claims-38843, accessed on 3 November 2016
  55. Spinks, Stefanie (2015a) Belle Gibson is still profiting off faking cancer: Demand she donates it to cancer research. Available online at https://www.change.org/p/belle-gibson-is-still-profiting-off-faking-cancer-demand-she-donates-it-to-cancer-research, accessed on 17 May 2016
  56. Spinks, Stefanie (2015b) Belle Gibson on 60 Minutes tonight! Available online at https://www.change.org/p/belle-gibson-is-still-profiting-off-faking-cancer-demand-she-donates-it-to-cancer-research/u/11218279, accessed on 10 January 2017
  57. Steffen, Vibeke (1997) Life stories and shared experiences, Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 45, No. 1 pp 99-111
  58. Tannen, Deborah (2013) The medium is the metamessage: Conversational style in new media interaction, Tannen, Deborah and Trester, Anna Marie (eds) Discourse 2.0: Language and new media, Washington, D.C., Georgetown University Press pp 99-118
  59. The Australian Women's Weekly (TAWW) (2015) Exclusive: Belle Gibson breaks her silence on that cancer diagnosis, The Australian Women's Weekly, 20 April. Available online at http://www.aww.com.au/latest-news/in-the-mag/belle-gibson-speaks-out-20243, accessed on 14 May 2016
  60. Thackray, Lucy (2015) 'Blood's boiling ... absolute lowlife': Twitter erupts after Belle Gibson interview and her former followers are left even more angry, Daily Mail Australia, 28 June
  61. The Dominion Post (2016) Cancer con artist's big TV payday revealed, The Dominion Post, 21 September
  62. Thurlow, Crispin (2013) Fakebook: Synthetic media, pseudo-sociality, and the rhetorics of Web 2.0, Tannen, Deborah and Trester, Anna Marie (eds) Discourse 2.0: Language and new media, Washington, D.C., Georgetown University Press pp 225-250
  63. Ward, Miranda (2015) The Voice drops on its return while 1.073m watch Belle Gibson's 60 Minutes intervew, Mumbrella, 29 June. Available online at https://mumbrella.com.au/the-voice-ratings-belle-gibson-60-minutes-nine-302328, accessed on 12 January 2017
  64. Ward, Stephen (2009) Truth and objectivity, Wilkins, Lee and Christians, Clifford (eds) The Handbook of Mass Media Ethics, London, Routledge pp 71-83
  65. West, Anna, and Trester, Marie (2013) Facework on Facebook: Conversations on social media, Tannen, Deborah and Trester, Anna Marie (eds) Discourse 2.0: Language and new media, Washington, D.C., Georgetown University Press pp 133-154
  66. Whitehead, Deborah (2015) The evidence of things unseen: Authenticity and fraud in the Christian Mommy blogosphere, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 83, No. 1 pp 120-150
  67. Willis, Charlotte, and Ma, Wenlei (2015) Tara Brown to Belle Gibson: 'You're a pathological liar', News Limited, 29 June. Available online at http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/tara-brown-to-belle-gibson-youre-a-pathological-liar/news-story/0f53718144abf61d8f09012103bccb0b, accessed on 23 May 2016
  68. Woodward, Wayne (2009) A philosophically-based inquiry into the nature of communicating humans, Wilkins, Lee and Christian, Clifford (eds) The handbook of mass media ethics, London, Routledge pp 3-14
  69. Yahoo7 (2014) Health, wellness and lifestyle app, 28 February. Available online at https://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/watch/21742703/health-wellness-and-lifestyle-app/ - page3, accessed on 23 May 2016

Note on the contributor

Elaine Xu is a media and communication doctoral candidate at Murdoch University, Perth, Australia. Her research examines how the communication of need in charitable fundraising influences donor perceptions and behaviours. Contact: School of Arts, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150; email: uxeniale@gmail.com.
Terence Lee is an Associate Professor in Communication and Media Studies at Murdoch University, Perth, Australia. He is Chair of the Communication Management postgraduate programme and is also a Research Fellow of the Asia Research Fellow at Murdoch University. Contact: School of Arts, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150; email: T.Lee@murdoch.edu.au.