Chinese medical professionals' self-identity construction in Xiaohongshu medical knowledge disseminating accounts

With both identity and health communication being heated topics in a variety of disciplines, extensive research has examined health professionals’ self-identity construction in traditional face-to-face doctor–patient communication and, more recently, in medical hotlines and medical consultation websites. However, little attention has been paid to the self-identity construction in medical professionals’ medical knowledge disseminating accounts on social media, a newly emergent source of digital health discourse. Drawing data from medical professionals’ personal profiles in their Xiaohongshu medical knowledge disseminating accounts and adopting a discourse-analytic approach, this study shows that medical professionals construct a range of self-identities, such as experts, friends of the audience, relatives of the audience, and guardians, through a variety of discursive means such as the use of medical jargon, propositional contents, and self-designation terms. Setting out from the assumption that identity construction can be a pragmatic resource, it is argued that medical professionals construct these self-identities for the purpose of trustworthiness-building. Finally, insights such as how Chinese medical professionals perceive their roles, their responsibilities, and their ideal relationship with the general public are also discussed.