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Online health-related philanthrotainment consists of videos displaying generosity to others and presented in an entertaining way. This practice includes stunt philanthropy where recipients are surprised with a gift and their shock and gratitude are captured for viewers. It can also entail more traditional health-related philanthropic activities including direct payments for medical services like cataract surgeries and public health-related activities such as developing access to clean drinking water. These videos use advertising revenue, product placement and viewer donations to fund the production of the video and support for recipients. While health-related philanthrotainment can confer substantial benefits on the people they feature, it also raises serious ethical concerns. These concerns include the inefficient use of donations and other funding; undermining democratic priority setting in giving; failing to identify and address the root causes of need; encouraging moral licensing behaviour; and degrading and exploiting recipients. In principle, these ethical concerns can be addressed by prioritising the aim of philanthropy over entertainment, including the voices and priorities of viewers and recipients in the production of these videos, and taking lessons from successful education-oriented online communicators. In practice, the twin incentives of attracting viewers and advertisers make these changes at best difficult to implement.
J Snyder (Mon,) studied this question.