Social media and delegitimisation of expert knowledge: a case study on a scientific communicator in the medical field

The emergence of specialised knowledge - increasingly complex and in some ways remote from everyday experience - has been one of the characteristics of the modernisation process. Expert knowledge, in fact, in the globalised world has become increasingly pervasive and necessary for the functioning of a complex society. However, complexity itself drives public opinion to rely on expert knowledge. The issue is not new, but the fall of class barriers and the pervasiveness of communication (online in particular) call into question any hierarchical approach in favour of an egalitarian circulation of knowledge. Therefore, trust in expert knowledge - a pillar of globalised and post-modern society - is constantly challenged. The experience of Covid-19 pandemic seems to have exacerbated, at least among part of the public, a trust crisis in science (consider the debate, proliferated mainly online, concerning measures to contain the pandemic or in relation to vaccines). This exploratory work investigates a case study, exemplary, in the authors’ opinion, of how medical knowledge is also in Italy challenged by an often sceptical or disillusioned public opinion. It also shows how specialist knowledge itself should find new and different approaches to not avoiding confrontation in the digital space but takes it on as a long-lasting field of debate.