Article published In: Narrative Inquiry: Online-First Articles
“I am a baby-friendly doctor, but…”
Narrative positioning in health advice stories on X/Twitter, Naija
Published online: 1 December 2025
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.25047.iny
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.25047.iny
Abstract
This paper investigates instances of narrativised health advice exchanges between Nigerian doctors and laypersons
on X/Twitter, Naija. Based on 144 story tweets, the analysis focuses on how advice exchanges manifest as acts of
narrative identity positioning. With Bamberg, M. (1997). Positioning
between structure and performance. Journal of Narrative and Life
History, 71, 335–342. three-level model of positioning,
interactional pragmatics, and membership categorisation analysis, the study examines the emergence and co-construction of
tale-world, interactional, and ideological dimensions of identity in the context of health communication. The findings reveal that
advice-giving interactions, as acts of identity positioning, manifest as cautionary tales, the evaluated biographical selves of
storytellers, the management of institutional roles, and as a concession to oppositional pressures, acquiescence to, or mostly
resistance to, hegemonic subject positions. The paper concludes that health advice-giving practices should be understood as
discursive sites where power and identity are negotiated. Therefore, practitioners should aim to co-construct advice interactions
that minimise asymmetry and foster collaborative meaning-making rather than reproducing hierarchical relations.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Theoretical foundation
- Advice exchanges and the small stories paradigm
- Positioning
- Interactional pragmatics and membership categorisation analysis
- Methods
- Analysis and discussions
- Level 1 Positioning: Tale world characters
- Level 2 Positioning: Telling identities
- Level 3 Positioning: Identities and ideologies
- Conclusions
- Note
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