Discours d’influenceurs, discours d’autorité ? Le cas de deux médecins influenceurs sur Twitter

Abstract

In this paper, I would like to demonstrate through a concrete case study, the processes and techno-discursive strategies deployed by two medical influencers to create a discourse of authority in Twitter. First, I will present the theoretical framework through which I understand the notion of authority at the intersection of the conceptions developed by Oger (2021) in discourse analysis, by Origgi in social epistemology (2008), and by Broudoux in information and communication sciences (2007), as well as the case studies conducted by myself (Vicari, 2021, 2021b, 2022) in discourse analysis. This will allow me to identify the elements that form the basis of what can be considered a relationship of authority, which I propose to show in a second phase, on a corpus of tweets borrowed from the accounts of a health nano-influencer (DrMus) and a health micro-influencer (Marine Lorphelin), both of whom are young doctors who have been particularly active on Twitter since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. My aim is to show that far from erasing any type of authority, digital devices, and in particular Twitter, favor the development of trusting relationships based on manifestations of authority that are situated halfway between the technological parameters of the devices and discursive marks.

Keywords

• authority discourse
• digital discourse analysis
• medical influencer
• Twitter