The Mediatization of Philanthropy : An ethnographic study of why and how cause-champions are contributing to the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research

This study seeks to better understand the motivations and mechanics of individuals contributing to nonprofits organizations today. Through the prism of our highly mediatized (Hjarvard, 2008) social environment, this study examines the individual motivations and actions of cause-champions running in the 2013 NYC marathon and fundraising through social media and offline on behalf of the Michael J Fox Foundation (MJFF). To gain the necessary detail and understanding of these micro-actions of an intimate participant group, ethnographic and auto-ethnographic methods are employed. The research has shown that in our current neoliberal context of philanthropy and social media, intrinsic motivations (Shirky, 2010) are an important part of why individuals are compelled to act on behalf of a nonprofit organization, and that these motivations possess both altruistic and self-directed characteristics. Results also show that much of the work produced by these cause-champions, both in-person and through social media, is regarded as 'affective' labour (Hardt, 1999) and is characterized by physicality and emotion which helps to build social connections and engagement with the cause