"We are what we eat:" Goffman's Self-Presentation Theory and Food Blogs as Social Media

• Main Authors: HUNG TA CHENG, 鄭宏達
• Other Authors: Shin-Jung Ho
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/6y67j7

碩士 === 佛光大學 === 傳播學系 === 97 === Web blogs serve not only as the information sources for opinion exchange, but also an important social media. This research focus on food blogs wherein people update and discuss delicious food. Food blogs appear as, in Goffman’s sense, a way of doing “self-presentation.” This research draws on both discourse and visual analysis. It discusses texts about food and associated food images. This research also discusses how bloggers use the internet as a stage to do performance such as diet and cultural constructions including: writing narration and image photography. The main research techniques are also qualitative. This research has found that food bloggers present themselves as Lohas (nutrient intake), dining out but home-oriented, good neighbor, and gourmand. From the interaction process occurring between bloggers (i.e., both the posters and the audiences or members), this research also concludes that bloggers’ managerial styles could influence the shaping and emergence of social media. There are four roles that bloggers play in creating social media: member leader, self-disclosure, experience opinion sharer, and product informant. Moreover, the interaction of members on the blog has two characteristics: the information strengthening interaction pattern and the emotion exchange interaction pattern. In a word, bloggers enjoy talking delicious food. By creating self-presentation through written text and visual image, bloggers perform their lives, selves, social groups, and emotion aspects.