Short answer
Designers should consider how digital platforms can be utilized not just for communication, but as spaces for critical discourse and societal negotiation, particularly for sensitive or emerging ethical topics.
- Field
- Innovation & Design
- Source
- Discourse & Society (2025)
- Method
- Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
- Sample
- 26 video posts
- Evidence
- Moderate effect
Chinese social media platforms, particularly those with a young female user base, can facilitate deeper structural critiques of complex bioethical issues through multimodal storytelling. This innovation & design research insight is drawn from a 2025 study published in Discourse & Society. Using Multimodal critical discourse analysis (cda) with 26 video posts, researchers explored how this design variable affects real-world outcomes. The key design takeaway: Designers should consider how digital platforms can be utilized not just for communication, but as spaces for critical discourse and societal negotiation, particularly for sensitive or emerging ethical topics.
Social Media Platforms Foster Structural Critique of Bioethical Issues
Chinese social media platforms, particularly those with a young female user base, can facilitate deeper structural critiques of complex bioethical issues through multimodal storytelling.
Discourse & Society · 2025
Key Findings
- 01Xiaohongshu users framed surrogacy as exploitative, commodifying women's bodies and children, and reinforcing class hierarchies.
- 02Discursive strategies included moral evaluation, rationalization, and dramatized scenarios to highlight systemic injustice.
- 03Surrogates were depicted as victims, while clients and intermediaries were portrayed as exploiters.
- 04A strong resistance narrative emerged, proposing creative, platform-aesthetic, and grassroots tactics against surrogacy normalization.
- 05Xiaohongshu enabled deeper structural critique compared to earlier platforms like Weibo.
Application
Design takeaway
Designers should consider how digital platforms can be utilized not just for communication, but as spaces for critical discourse and societal negotiation, particularly for sensitive or emerging ethical topics.
How to apply
When designing digital platforms or campaigns related to ethical or social issues, consider incorporating multimodal elements and features that encourage critical analysis and discussion beyond surface-level engagement.
Project actions
- 01When analyzing online discussions, consider the platform's features and how they influence the type of conversation that occurs.
- 02Look for how different forms of media (text, images, video) are used together to create meaning and persuade audiences.
Method & Evidence
Variables
Strengths & Limitations
Strengths
- +Focus on multimodal analysis provides a richer understanding of online communication.
- +Case study approach allows for in-depth examination of a specific, relevant event.
Limitations
The specific social media platform and the topic of surrogacy are unique to this study, so direct comparisons to other contexts might be challenging.
Reliability & validity
Reliability could be enhanced by using multiple coders for the discourse analysis. Validity is supported by the use of established CDA frameworks and the focus on a specific, well-defined case study.
Think critically
To what extent can the 'resistance narratives' observed on social media translate into tangible real-world change, and what role does platform design play in enabling or hindering this translation?
Design Principles
"Design for critical discourse: Create and utilize digital environments that enable nuanced, multimodal critique and collective negotiation of complex societal issues."
Designers and researchers can leverage the unique affordances of different digital platforms to understand how public discourse on sensitive topics evolves. This insight highlights the potential for platforms to move beyond surface-level discussions and enable more profound societal negotiation and engagement with emerging ethical challenges.
What This Means for Your Design
Social media can be used to have deep discussions about difficult ethical topics, with some platforms being better than others for this kind of critical thinking.
How to use in your project
- 1.Use this research to justify the choice of a specific social media platform for analyzing public discourse in your own design project.
- 2.Refer to the multimodal analysis techniques to inform your own methods for evaluating user-generated content.
Add to My Project
Quick Cite
Paragraph starter
This research highlights how multimodal social media platforms can foster deeper structural critiques of bioethical issues, suggesting that the design of digital spaces significantly influences the nature and depth of public discourse. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for designing platforms that effectively support informed societal negotiation.
Source
Discourse & Society
“Say no to the commodification of our uterus”: A multimodal critical discourse analysis of anti-surrogacy posts on Chinese social media
journal · 2025
View sourceQuestions About This Research
- What does the research say about social media platforms foster structural critique of bioethical issues?
- Designers should consider how digital platforms can be utilized not just for communication, but as spaces for critical discourse and societal negotiation, particularly for sensitive or emerging ethical topics. Evidence: Discourse & Society (2025).
- Why does "Social Media Platforms Foster Structural Critique of Bioethical Issues" matter for design?
- Designers and researchers can leverage the unique affordances of different digital platforms to understand how public discourse on sensitive topics evolves. This insight highlights the potential for platforms to move beyond surface-level discussions and enable more profound societal negotiation and engagement with emerging ethical challenges.
- How can designers apply this research?
- Designers should consider how digital platforms can be utilized not just for communication, but as spaces for critical discourse and societal negotiation, particularly for sensitive or emerging ethical topics.
- What were the main findings?
- Xiaohongshu users framed surrogacy as exploitative, commodifying women's bodies and children, and reinforcing class hierarchies.. Discursive strategies included moral evaluation, rationalization, and dramatized scenarios to highlight systemic injustice.. Surrogates were depicted as victims, while clients and intermediaries were portrayed as exploiters.. A strong resistance narrative emerged, proposing creative, platform-aesthetic, and grassroots tactics against surrogacy normalization.
- What research method was used?
- Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with 26 video posts.
- How strong is the evidence?
- Evidence strength is rated Moderate effect, based on a 2025 journal from Discourse & Society.
- What should I do differently in my next project?
- When designing digital platforms or campaigns related to ethical or social issues, consider incorporating multimodal elements and features that encourage critical analysis and discussion beyond surface-level engagement.
- What are the limitations?
- The study is specific to the Chinese social media context and the anti-surrogacy discourse; findings may not be directly generalizable to other cultural contexts or other bioethical issues.