Health and beauty on Instagram: ethos and stereotypes in digital influencer posts.

Abstract

This research project, which aims to contribute to the studies on digital discourse and that of digital influencers, proposes to analyze the image of Brazilian digital influencers who present themselves as references in health and beauty issues. In function of this objective, the project, based on the theoretical-methodological apparatus of the French Discourse Analysis, gravitates around the notion of discursive ethos that concerns, precisely, the image that the enunciator subject projects of himself in his speech, considering the way it states. The set of material consists of thirty publiposts - that is, posts with advertising purposes -, which were disclosed by renowned Brazilian influencers on Instagram and that promote health and/ or beauty products. It is considered that in this type of post, while the influencer discloses a product in your profile, it also reinforces your personal image. Thus, it is hypothesized that the possible differences between the ethos of the discourses of the influencers are related to the particularities of the profile of each of them. With the analysis of the ethos of the discourse of the influencers, we seek to understand how the image they project of themselves can mobilize, combat or reinforce stereotypes related to health and human beauty, which should bring some contribution to the reflections on the persuasive role of social networks, which grow so much in the Brazilian digital context. In addition, since the project should address how the interaction between the identity designed by the influencer and the advertising function of the post occurs, it will also contribute to the studies on publipost as a digital genre.