Conference Program

Medical communication finds in social networking platforms a privileged space for visibility, circulation, and legitimation, leading to the development of unprecedented forms of mediation between experts and citizens (van Dijck et al. 2018). While, on the one hand, it is primarily in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic that health became central within public discourse, thanks to the presence of experts in Tv programs across traditional media; on the other hand digital media have provided a new space for medical and scientific communication aimed at fostering and disseminating a culture of prevention, especially among younger people (Goodell 1977; Lombardo & Mauceri 2020; Campus & Saracino 2022; Mihelj et al. 2022).

As part of the broader process of redefinition of media landscape – in which actors ‘outside’ the traditional information system actively participate in the production of specialist information – experts assume the role of “science influencers” and develop successful strategies through their ability to combine scientific accuracy and linguistic simplification, and to adapt their communications, styles, narrative, and languages to the standards of social media (Ducci et al. 2021; Zhang & Lu 2023). The effectiveness of the message depends on the balance between informational accuracy and communicative “proximity”: concise graphics, thematic rubrics, non-specialist vocabulary, and attention to current issues all contribute to the construction of content oriented not only towards the transmission of knowledge, but also towards the promotion of informed behaviours in matters of prevention and health, as well as the countering of misinformation. Social media thus become a strategic resource for medical communication, while the authority of experts directly shapes both the credibility of content and their capacity to influence public audiences (van Dijck & Alinejad 2020; Štětka et al. 2026).

Instagram and TikTok represent particularly significant communicative tools for medical dissemination due to the use of audio-visual content (images and videos), its capacity to encourage interaction and engagement, and its ability to translate specialist content into accessible formats. Medical communication on Social media, in fact, does not consist just in a simplification (or a “decline”) of specialist knowledge, but rather in a cultural translation that entails the selection, hierarchisation, and elaboration of content according to its readability, recognisability, and shareability. Among the most well-known examples in Italy are Dr. Monica Calcagni (@ginecologa.calcagni), Dr. Claudio Olivieri (@dr.claudio_olivieri), Minerva Salute (@minervasalute), and HeiMI-Salute e Prevenzione (@heimi.saluteeprevenzione), which are meaningful case studies for studying the editorial strategies and content production practices that have contributed to a “revival” of medical information through social networking sites. The research was conducted through a qualitative analytical approach applied to three distinctive elements of the above-mentioned selected social profiles: (a) the aims of the profile’s content, (b) the evolution of the editorial format, and (c) the business models.

The analysis outlines both strengths and risks in the role of experts as influencers on social media. While platforms enable medical communication to reach wider audiences and foster engagement, data-driven logics reshapes how expertise is communicated, creating tensions between scientific accuracy, visibility, and algorithmic personalization.