Social and Digital Resources: The Hindered Information Practices of Cancer Patients
Résumé
This chapter focuses on hindered informational practices by presenting, on the one hand, the constraints that patients face in mobilizing their close circle of family and friends in the context of the disease, and, on the other hand, the difficulties they encounter in obtaining information through the Internet. It relies on a survey using semi‐structured interviews conducted between 2010 and 2014 with approximately 60 cancer patients with various socio‐demographic characteristics. In terms of information retrieval, a distinction can be made between social resources and digital resources. Three categories of family members and friends have the possibility of transmitting information of different kinds to the patient: neophyte family members and friends; initiated family members and friends; and professional family members and friends. The Internet offers different forms of communication: patients can choose either to consult information only or to participate in discussions by asking questions, formulating answers or reacting to comments.