“Luckily, she's alive”: Narratives of vicarious experience told by Polish doctors

Abstract

In this paper we aim to establish the forms and functions of vicarious narratives told by Polish doctors in two contexts of talk at work: face to face interaction in focus group discussions and asynchronous interaction in blogs. The widespread use of social media such as blogs, thanks to their technological affordances, has provided researchers with diverse types of narratives, including narratives in medical contexts (Page, 2012; Georgakopoulou, 2013). We draw on a narrative-pragmatic approach to studying workplace discourse (Norrick, 2013). We propose that doctors legitimise their professional identity through vicarious narratives by communicating professional values, expertise and authority. They also build solidarity and share experience with others or mitigate responsibility. Furthermore, in both focus groups and medical blogs, professional authority may merge with self-disclosure. When it comes to differences, narratives about others in focus group discussions are more formulaic, while in blogs they are more informal and may be episodic. Finally, positive emotions and positive evaluation seem to characterise focus group discussions, while negative evaluation of others is present in blogs.