Social Media Influencers: A New Hybrid Professionalism in the Age of Platform Capitalism?

• Autores: Paola Sedda, Oihana Husson
• Localización: Professionalism and Social Change: Processes of Differentiation Within, Between and Beyond Professions. / coord. por Lara Maestripieri, Andrea Bellini, 2023, ISBN 978-3-031-31278-6, págs. 281-304
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This chapter analyses the way social media influencers, acting in the context of communities of practice, participate in redefining professionalism and professional practices in the marketing and communications fields while promoting social values or advocating for a cause of public interest. Using a methodological approach based on interviews, ethnographic observation, discourse analysis and qualitative content analysis, the study considers influencers as a specific case of “hybrid professionalism” (Noordegraaf, Administration and Society, 39(6), 761–781, 2007) in which quantitative performance criteria, prescribed by platforms, are combined with creative logic and collective action. Centred on the promotion of authenticity and individual achievement, their commitment evokes the ethos of “artistic critique” (Boltanski & Chiapello, Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme. Paris, Gallimard. (First Edition 1999), 2011). Even though they claim recognition and expertise, these actors do not necessarily engage in a real process of institutionalisation, as the influence they exert among their communities mainly derives from their differentiation from institutional actors, allowing to make their messages of social change more visible. In an effort to go beyond traditional approaches, our perspective looks at professionals as actors of change who are constantly reframing their discourse on “professionalism” based on public demands and the emergence of new political and societal issues.