Micro-celebrities of information: mapping calibrated expertise and knowledge influencers among social media veterinarians

Abstract

Influencers are a defining feature of the contemporary social media landscape, but little has interrogated how these individuals may privilege information sharing as essential to their brand. This article interrogates the role of the knowledge influencer, or those who perform micro-celebrity to convey information and expertise to lay audiences. Knowledge influencers can be doctors, lawyers, or anyone, regardless of class, who is an expert in their occupation. In doing so, knowledge influencers perform what I call calibrated expertise, or the curated performance strategy in which experts harness social media affordances, platform dynamics, and aspects of micro-celebrity to impart information. Through a case study analysis of social media veterinarians on Instagram, I show how calibrated expertise is discursively performed, and knowledge influencers emerge, at a cultural moment in which neoliberalism continues to blur the lines between work and play, and populist backlashes against experts are ubiquitous. By navigating micro-celebrity, authenticity, and relatability, knowledge influencers put a human face and contemporary cultural spin on expertise. Though, this does not mean the knowledge influencer is the answer to sweeping distrust, but rather, is an untapped resource for considering information sharing and power dynamics in neoliberal, populist times.