Breast Cancer Prevention Online in a Crisis of Confidence Context: From Medical–Technical Discourse to Social Support

In this chapter, the authors propose understanding the context of the crisis of confidence linked to the historical, organizational and communicational specificities of breast cancer prevention through its mechanisms and actors. They present their research methodology and the main results of their online ethnographic study on the info‐communication practices of population concerned with regard to prevention discourses. Breast cancer prevention is facing a crisis, which is reflected in the fact that organized screening rates have stagnated at 52% since 2008, that is, four years after the launch of the organized screening program, which is the main prevention technique in France. The multiplication of institutions could lead to tangled skills, lack of synergy or coordination, and to social inequalities in access to prevention awareness information and/or organized screening. The lexicometric analysis confirms the concealment of a lexicographical field: prevention and screening. The authors discuss practices that fall under the heading of online social support.