Constructing Expert Identity as a Health Journalist: A Discursive Analysis

Abstract

Health journalists have been heavily criticized in academic literature for bad and inaccurate reporting, but little research has considered factors like discursive identity and roles to gain a better understanding of their daily journalistic practice. This paper examines how specialized journalists construct and negotiate their expert identity in the field of health, medicine and science. We conducted a fine-grained analysis of three interviews, with journalists that have various degrees of specialisation, and different backgrounds and working circumstances. Taking into account discursive markers, this analysis provides us with new insights in the arguments and factors that journalists refer to when reflecting on and constructing their expert identity when discussing health topics.