In the digital world, notions of intimacy, communion and sharing are increasingly enacted through new media technologies and social practices which emerge around them. These technologies with the... Show More

In the digital world, notions of intimacy, communion and sharing are increasingly enacted through new media technologies and social practices which emerge around them. These technologies with the ability to upload, download and disseminate content to select audiences or to a wider public provide opportunities for the creation of new forms of rituals which authenticate and diarise everyday experiences. Consumption cultures in many ways celebrate the notion of the exhibit and the spectacle inviting gaze through everyday objects and rituals. Food as a vital part of culture, identity, belonging, and meaning making celebrates both the everyday and the invitation to renew connections through food as a universal subject of appeal. Food imagery as a form of transacted materiality online offers familiarity, comfort, co-presence but above all a common elemental literacy where food transcends cultural barriers, offering a universal pull towards a commodity which is ephemeral yet preserved through the click economy. Food is symbolic of human solidarity, sociality and sharing and equally of difference creating a spectacle and platform for conversations, conventions, connections, and vicarious consumption. Food images symbolise connection at a distance through everyday material culture and practices.

Austerity food blogs have become prominent as household food budgets have become tighter, government finances constrained, and an ideology of austerity has become dominant. The British version of... Show More

Austerity food blogs have become prominent as household food budgets have become tighter, government finances constrained, and an ideology of austerity has become dominant. The British version of austerity privileges reducing government spending by cutting welfare benefits, and legitimizes this through individual failure explanations of poverty and stereotypes of benefit claimants. Austerity food blogs, written by those forced to live hand to mouth, are a hybrid form of digital culture that merges narratives of lived experience, food practices and political commentary in ways that challenge the dominant views on poverty. The popular blog A Girl Called Jack disrupts the austerity hegemony by breaking the silence that the stigma of poverty imposes on the impoverished and by personalizing poverty through Jack Monroe's narratives of her lived experience of it, inviting the reader's pity and refuting reductionist explanations of the causes of poverty. Monroe also challenges austerity through practices derived through her personal knowledge gained during her struggle to survive and eat healthily on £10-a-week food budget. This combination of narrative and survival practices written evocatively and eloquently resonate powerfully with readers; however the response to Monroe's blog highlights a deep uneasiness in British society over growing levels of poverty, and deep divisions over who is responsible for addressing it; and more fundamentally, over identifying and defining the modern poor and modern poverty.

The low-carb high fat (LCHF) diet, a buzz diet in Sweden, is stirring dogmatic conflict between dieters and representatives from the National Food Agency (NFA), even gaining international... Show More

The low-carb high fat (LCHF) diet, a buzz diet in Sweden, is stirring dogmatic conflict between dieters and representatives from the National Food Agency (NFA), even gaining international reputation. After gathering materials from social media and press reports covering the popular diet, a thematic analysis has been conducted. The aim of this study was to investigate how three non-conventional experts and influential promoters of the LCHF movement transact their criticisms of current nutrition authorities, and how they utilize social media for their purpose. The diet has been highly politicized, creating distrust against the established scientific community. Findings indicate that events on the national level led to an increased public awareness of the LCHF diet, providing the supporters with invaluable opportunities to criticize the established nutritional community. This enabled certain prominent advocates of the diet to gain momentum while using features of social media to further the diet's believability.

The 2010–2013 Fish Fight campaign, produced by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and hosted by chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, is a transmedia experience designed to (1) draw the public's attention... Show More

The 2010–2013 Fish Fight campaign, produced by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and hosted by chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, is a transmedia experience designed to (1) draw the public's attention to the reckless discarding of caught fish because of the quota system intended to conserve fish stocks in the domain of the European Union; and to (2) pressure the authorities to change the European Common Fisheries Policy. The article analyzes the transmedia strategies of the Fish Fight campaign in order to demonstrate how the multiplatform media production contributed to (1) make the public aware of the wasteful discarding of healthy fish at sea under the European fishing quotas; and (2) to amend the European Union's fishing policies. The research findings point to the effective role of transmedia storytelling strategies in raising awareness in the political sphere through public participation in supporting relevant issues, influencing policy change.