Research
Food communication: omnipresent & relevant
Food communication got more diverse in recent years. Today, not only professionals communicate with rather passive laymen via traditional media (e. g. TV). Food has evolved to a complex subject of communication, which one can find in several levels of social communication where various individuals, groups and organizations participate.
“It is certainly not something that begins and ends with ‘nutritional guidelines’, although a quick internet search for ‘nutrition’ reveals the extent to which the term has become tied to ‘facts’ and ‘guides’" (Hayes-Conroy & Hayes-Conroy, 2013, p. 1). With the recent rise of “foodie culture” (Shugart, 2017), characterized by a high interest in food, and in view of social changes of media use and multiple digital communication options, food communication nowadays is more present in everyday life of society than ever before (Calefato et al., 2016).
As food and related communication can be seen as a “total social fact” (Marcel Mauss, 1968) that is complexly intertwined with all aspects of life, research on these interrelations is diversified and incomprehensible. Research on food communication is fragmented into various disciplines and is not allied so far.
Thereby, food communication is understood as thematically wide-ranging encompassing aspects interrelated with various stages along the food value chain (Godemann & Bartelmeß, 2017). Through forming up around the meaning making processes in social food communication, food communication itself concurrently emerged as object of research and fruitful research field.
Sources
Calefato, P.; La Fortuna, L. & R. Scelzi (2016). Food-ography. Food and new media. Semiotica2016 (211), p. 371–388.
Godemann, J. & Bartelmeß, T. (2017). Ernährungskommunikation und Nachhaltigkeit. Perspektiven eines Forschungsfeldes. Ernährungs Umschau 64 (12), p. 692-698.
Godemann, J. & Bartelmeß, T. (2018). Gesellschaftliche Verständigung über ein Totalphänomen. Zum Verständnis nachhaltigkeitsbezogener Ernährungskommunikation. In: Phyel, T. (Hrsg.).Zwischen Ohnmacht und Zuversicht. Vom Umgang mit Komplexität in der Nachhaltigkeitskommunikation. DBU Reihe Umweltkommunikation. München: oekom. p. 187-206.
Hayes-Conroy, A. & J. Hayes-Conroy (2013). Doing Nutrition Differently. Critical Approaches to Diet and Dietary Intervention. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing.
Mauss, M. (1968). Die Gabe: Die Form und Funktion des Austauschs in archaischen Gesellschaften. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Schneider, T.; Eli, K.; Dolan, C., & S. Ulijaszek (Eds.). (2018). Digital food activism. Oxon, New York: Routledge.
Shugart, H. A. (2017). Critical Food Studies. In: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.654
WHO (World Health Organization) (2015). Health in 2015: from Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals. Geneva: WHO Press.