‘Warren Buffet is my cousin’: shaping public understanding of big data biotechnology, direct-to-consumer genomics, and 23andMe on Twitter

ABSTRACT

Scholars, educators, regulators, pundits, and other observers are advocating for regulation and oversight of direct-to-consumer (DTC) genomic testing. As a result, the technology has been subject of highly visible public and regulatory controversy. In this article, we explore the nature and the shape of the sentiment of public discourse about the DTC company, 23andMe. We conduct a quantitative content analysis and qualitative framing analysis on Tweets. We find that the discourse surrounding DTC genomics and 23andMe is largely positive. We also identify a number of frames users deploy to debate, discuss, and share their experiences with DTC genomics and 23andMe. We argue that these frames create meaning around this emerging technology for its users.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media
• Twitter
• 23andMe
• content analysis
• framing analysis
• direct-to-consumer (DTC) genomics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Peter Chow-White is Associate Professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University where he is Director of the GeNA Lab [email: [email protected]].

Stephan Struve has obtained his Masters degree at the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University, exploring the role of the media in hyping genomic science and focusing on the public understanding of genetic science. Using Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis, Stephan combined critical inquiry with advanced research methods [email: [email protected]].

Alberto Lusoli is a PhD student in the School of Communication at SFU. His interests focus on technology, work practices and organizations. His approach is inspired by technological constructivism and Actor-Network Theory. He is currently researching on the interplay between organizations, labour and technology within startup companies [email: [email protected]].

Frederik Lesage is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. His current research interests include the vernacular in digital media cultures. His most recent work focuses on documenting the cultural biography of consumer-driven creative digital tools like Photoshop. Frederik has contributed to many edited books and academic journals including Fibreculture, the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media and Convergence [email: [email protected]].

Nilesh Saraf is a Professor of Management Information Systems in the Beedie School of Business at SFU. He researches the diffusion of enterprise information technology and its role in creating business value [email: [email protected]].

Amanda Oldring completed a Masters degree from the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University [email: [email protected]].

Notes

1 The restriction only applies to US customers. UK and Canadian customers have always had unrestricted access to the health report on the 23andMe website.

2 We calculated intercoder agreement for each attitude (94% positive, 89% unassigned, 91% negative) and averaged all values. Kappa coefficient ranged from 0.76 to 0.9.