From Habitus to Healthy Hashtags. Understanding Food Culture Through Healthy Food Content on Instagram

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Abstract

In today’s Western society, a wide variety of cooking television programs, food festivals and cooking books, shows that food is a hot topic. It can furthermore be observed that many people share their own eating habits online. Rather than simply taking so-called ‘selfies’, people now also take photos of their food – seemingly functioning as new forms of self-portraits. The popularity of sharing eating experiences is especially visible on food blogs and mobile photo and video application Instagram, where food trends are spread respectively through recipes and photos and consequently contribute to the shaping of food culture. Despite a rise in studies on food culture, the relation between food and media has been relatively unexamined. Moreover, while many papers have been written on Facebook and Twitter, only few researchers have focused on Instagram as an object of study. Therefore, this thesis will address these gaps and focus on the relation between media and food. Moreover, it will zoom in on a trend towards ‘healthy food’, as part of developments in both food culture and media. In particular, this thesis will look at food culture through ‘healthy food content’ on Instagram. Drawing upon Bourdieu’s work Distinction, it will examine the roles of class, capital and habitus in the emergence of healthy food trends. It will elaborate on perceptions on healthy food and discuss what participating in this trend to eat healthy means for class differences and self-presentation. Furthermore, it aims to give a better understanding of Instagram and outline methods that can be used for further studies in the field of software studies and digital methods. The main aim is to find out in what ways food culture is being mediated and to what extent food culture itself is a mediating mechanism. Finally, this thesis concludes that food can serve as a mediator of the self. In this mediation, class differences are not only presented, but also created. Food is thus more than an object of mediation; it is a classifying agent.

Keywords: food culture, media, healthy food, self-presentation, Bourdieu, class, capital, Instagram,

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Acknowledgements

Writing a thesis always involves the support of others. I therefore would like to thank a couple of people, who I believe have contributed to this final result. Firstly, I would like to thank Carolin Gerlitz

for being a great supervisor: always being communicative and constructive, and challenging me to continuously improve my work. Secondly, I would like to mention Bernhard Rieder, who helped me

to pursue the type of study I envisioned by developing a tool that allowed me to gather data from Instagram. Lastly, I would like to thank my parents and my sister, for inspiring me to learn how to

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List of Figures

Images

Image 1. #foodporn – number of posts……… 31

Image 2. #foodporn – examples……… 31

Image 3. Instagram – image adjustments……… 36

Image 4. Instagram – starting page………. 36

Image 5. Instagram – likes and follows………. 37

Image 6. Instagram – sharing a post……… 37

Image 7. Gephi – #food ……….. 46

Image 8. Gephi – #eat……… 47

Image 9. Gephi – #cleaneating……… 49

Image 10. Gephi – #eatclean……… 50

Image 11. Gephi – #eathealthy……….. 51

Image 12. Gephi – #healthyfood……….. 52

Image 13. Gephi – #diet……….. 54

Image 14. Gephi – #vegan………. 57

Image 15. Word cloud biography texts……… 60

Image 16. Word cloud URLs………. 63

Image 17. Google Trends – [food] ………. 77

Image 18. Google Trends – [healthy food] ……….. 77

Image 19. Examples of Instagram photos of healthy food……… 78

Tables

Table 1. Top 5 healthy food hashtags – input #eat……….. 41

Table 2. Top 5 healthy food hashtags – input #food……… 41

Table 3. Top 10 hashtags – input #food……… 48

Table 4. Top 10 hashtags – input #eat……… 48

Table 5. Hashtags associated with food as pleasure……… 53

Table 6. Hashtags associated with fitness……….. 53

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Table 8. Hashtags associated with a fit body……… 55

Table 9. Hashtags associated with food and eating………. 55

Table 10. Malaysian and English hashtags……….. 56

Table 11. Biography information……… 60

Table 12. Instagram filters………... 61

Table 13. Link to other website from user profile on Instagram……….. 62

Table 14. Top web domains……… 62

Table 15. Layout information Gephi………. 79

Table 16. Number of nodes and edges……… 79

Table 17. Modularity settings and results………. 79

Table 18. Modules #healthyfood……… 81

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1. Introduction

1.1. Context

In many parts of the Western world, food is not just an essential part of life in terms of biology; it is also used by people as a way to present themselves. As Barthes puts it, all activities related to food, such as buying products, cooking and eating, form a structure through which we communicate (Barthes 24-25). Moreover, the kind of food people eat is – together with a certain lifestyle – increasingly exposed through various online platforms. This development reveals something about how people deal with food, but also how food says something about people. With the amount of cooking television shows, food festivals and cooking books currently available, one can safely say that food is a hot topic. It can furthermore be observed that many people share their own eating habits online. Rather than simply taking so-called ‘selfies’1_{, people now also take photos of their food –} seemingly functioning as new forms of self-portraits. The popularity of sharing your eating habits is especially visible on food blogs and mobile application Instagram, where food trends are spread respectively through recipes and photos and consequently add to food culture and conceptions of taste.

As part of the developments in food culture, one can also observe an interest in “healthy food”. Naturally, what is considered to be healthy food is a whole debate in itself, and I do not aim to make claims about what should be regarded as healthy food. Rather, I am interested in the way people engage with all kinds of perceptions on healthy food, such as veganism, clean eating2_and superfoods3_{, and how this emerges as a trend within food culture, but also in media. Google trends} for instance shows a slight increase in the term food, and a strong interest in terms such as ‘healthy food’ and ‘eatclean’ (Google Trends 2015; see appendix A). The popularity of this topic is also visible on Instagram, where one can find millions of photos of healthy food (see appendix B). To give an indication, #glutenfree, #eatclean and #healthy respectively count for more than 43 million, almost 20 million and more than 4 million messages on Instagram. If one compares this to #food, which is used in more than 162 million messages, the presence of healthy food appears to be quite

1_{A selfie is “a photographic self-portrait; esp. one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social}

media” (Oxford English Dictionary)

2_{Clean eating is a diet developed by Tosca Reno. This diet argues that products containing chemical substances,}

such as light variants, should not be eaten (Reno, 10). The eatclean diet also stresses the importance of an overall healthy lifestyle, such as eating healthy and exercising.

3_{According to the European Food Information Council, “generally speaking, superfoods refer to foods —}

especially fruits and vegetables — whose nutrient content confers a health benefit above that of other foods. ” (European Food Information Council 2012).

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substantial. Notably, big food companies are also recognizing this trend and offer products that meet the needs of the consumer (Shemkus 2015). As was for instance stated in a conference by Campbell’s President and CEO Denise Morrison, the company observed a trend among consumers toward fresh food and healthy eating. Furthermore, they noticed that consumers demand more transparency about the nutritional value of products and their effects on their health (Thomson Reuters 3). These sources show that healthy food is a trend, which is why it is relevant to address this topic now.

The interaction between media, food culture and the food industry shows that food runs through all layers of society and can be understood from many different disciplines. As Belasco (1999) points out, a humanities perspective can offer useful insights, because it can challenge existing notions on food established by specialists (Belasco 31). The study of food culture is not new, but much of the influential work has been focused on the influence of authorities in the food business, such as the power of big nutrition concerns and the agricultural sector (e.g. Belasco 2007; Nestle 2013; Pollan 2006; Probyn 2000). According to Counihan and Van Esterik, the expansion of feminist and women studies has simultaneously yielded a renewed focus on cooking and food, because traditionally, food has been perceived as the domain of women. They furthermore argue that the political and social weight given to food has increasingly put topics such as consumption, production and food politics on the agenda. Moreover, food has been accepted as a legitimate topic of research, which has given rise to the emergence of various academic journals focused on food (Counihan and Van Esterik 2), such as Food, Culture & Society and Food & History.

Despite a growth in interdisciplinary studies on food, up until now, studies that incorporate a media studies perspective are limited. This is a missed opportunity, because the fact is that in today’s Western society, food is not only presented on a plate, but also in television cooking shows, restaurant reviews, and photos on social media platforms. Studying these phenomena will learn us more about food, and about people. The relation between food and media raises many questions. How did food enter the media sphere? What has this meant for people’s perceptions of (healthy) food and taste? How does Instagramming your food fall within this developments?

By studying healthy food content on Instagram, I thus aim to fill a gap in food culture studies. Moreover, up until now, Instagram has been relatively unexamined and therefore, this thesis also contributes to the field of new media studies. Why do healthy food trends emerge on this platform? How do users interact with the medium? How can one employ a social media study in a way that it tells us more about the platform and its users, but also about the phenomenon?

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1.2. Aim and research questions

In this thesis, I will look at the emergence of food culture through ‘healthy food content’ on Instagram. My aim is threefold. Firstly, I want to find out more about healthy food as a phenomenon and how it emerges within food culture and in media. Secondly, I want to understand what participating in this trend means for class differences and self-presentation. Thirdly, my aim is to give a better understanding of Instagram and outline methods that can be used for further studies in the field of software studies and digital methods.

I am interested in seeing how the healthy food trend is not limited to Instagram, but really connects to society on all kinds of levels, such as discussions on class, gender and self-presentation. I will therefore also situate the case of healthy food content within a larger framework of culture and media, aiming to understand the emergence of this trend and the role of media in this development. In other words, this thesis will focus on the relation between food and media in the understanding of a healthy food trend, while continuously addressing how this relation, as well as this trend, is constituted by social structures. The red thread of this thesis is summarized in my main research question:

In what ways is food culture being mediated on Instagram and to what extent is food culture itself a mediating mechanism?

This question is supported by a number of sub-questions:

 How should one understand the emergence of healthy food from a social, cultural and economic perspective?

 In what ways have developments in the media landscape informed a hybridized food culture?

 How do Instagram’s features inform user’s behaviour on the platform?

 How can we interpret healthy food trends following content on Instagram? What does it say about self-presentation?

1.3. Structure of the thesis

In order to understand the role of food on Instagram, I will first explore the field of food culture and food trends in relation to culture, sociology and economics. Among others, I want to incorporate Pierre Bourdieu’s work Distinction to elaborate on the notions of taste and habitus and explain the

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relation between communities and trends. Moreover, I will examine how structures in society, such as class and capital add to changes in food culture. In this chapter, I will also elaborate on the emergence of healthy food trends and how this connects to self-presentation.

Second, I will focus on media practices in relation to food and explain how structures in society which shape food culture can be traced through a media studies perspective. The aim of this chapter is furthermore to show how the trend of healthy food content on Instagram has emerged as a result of developments in the media landscape.

Third, I will outline my methodology for the study on healthy food content, which seeks to examine the medium-specific features of Instagram and the way users of the platform rely on these features to produce an image of the self.

Fourth, I will outline the findings of the case study in connection to key notions provided by the literature. Lastly, in my conclusion, I will try to answer the main question, namely in what ways food culture is being mediated on Instagram and to what extent is food culture itself a mediating mechanism.

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2. Understanding Food Culture

In this chapter, I will examine the role of food in our society and elaborate on the emergence of healthy food as part of food culture. In this thesis, I aim to examine food and the representation of food from a media perspective, while also continuously examining in what ways it intersects with other fields. Therefore, this chapter provides a theoretical framework of perspectives on food culture and seeks to understand the emergence of healthy food within this culture. This forms the basis for the other chapters, wherein I will discuss the interaction of food culture and media and zoom in on healthy food content on Instagram.

2.1. A class(ic) approach to taste and food

From a sociological perspective, eating habits are often considered to be a product of class (Fernández-Armesto xi), which has resulted in various books about food culture in relation to sociological developments (e.g. Goody 1982; Bourdieu 1984). The emphasis on class and taste has been the main focus of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s book Distinction. Bourdieu’s ideas build on the work of Wittgenstein, who stressed the functioning on rules in our society. By rule, Wittgenstein understood types of paradigms we live by. Every paradigm has its outside world with people who are not aware of the premises of that paradigm. Therefore, things we take as common knowledge might actually not be the same for everyone, which can lead to miscommunications (Taylor 29-30). Food culture might be one of the clearest examples in which one can recognize these miscommunications. For instance, in some parts of the world, it is considered normal to eat dogs or guinea pigs, while these animals are held as pets in other parts of the world.

In essence, Wittgenstein’s argument is that there is no such thing as foundationalism. All situations can be misunderstood due to a lack of common ground or context (Taylor 31). Generally speaking, Wittgenstein’s ideas can be translated two ways. The first option is that the lack of foundationalism means that all knowledge consists of a simple web of connections - imposed by society - and comes to us automatically without questioning it. The second option is that our backgrounds incorporate understanding into the web of links, which means that we do not simply take it for granted, but that we seek for a logic that makes sense (Taylor 32). Wittgenstein’s theory furthermore applies to an understanding of what the subject means. As Taylor explains, the subject is the mind and soul that interacts with representations, such as the body, other people and objects (36). Even though due to the lack of foundationalism misunderstandings between people can always

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occur, there are also groups of people who share the same ideas or knowledge with each other, such as a shared language (36).

In relation to food, the same mechanism applies. Due to globalization, McDonalds is something many people have heard of, yet menus still differ from country to country. Most establishments will sell the Big Mac, but this can be combined with local drinks and food. As Chiara points out, the fact that McDonalds incorporates national values into its business strategy is actually part of the reason for its success (197). In other words, the interactions subjects have with representations can be similar to a group of different people. These interactions can be regarded as social structures, which is where Wittgenstein’s theory connects to Bourdieu.

Both scholars argue that identities also flow from spaces where social structures are shared with others, because we can also identify ourselves with social space. Bourdieu (1984) argued that the social space could be drawn like a map, which makes it an abstract presentation (169). Bourdieu (1989) explained that social space can be compared to physical space in the way that it could be divided into regions. However, Bourdieu stresses that ‘regional’ proximity in social space is characterized by common properties. The farther away the regions are from each other, the less common properties people will have in common. This differs from physical space, where people who live far away from each other can still share the same properties (Bourdieu 16). Bourdieu’s notion of the field explains social space on a more specific level. Fields are social spaces, which have their own borders, rules and behaviour. Examples are economic, academic, or class-related fields (Griller 190). Within each field, agents are situated together with their social position, which is constituted by a combination of an agent’s habitus and capital. This connects to Wittgenstein’s argument that there is no such thing as common ground; every field has different properties and hence the social hierarchy differs per field.

From Bourdieu’s theory, one can argue that there does not exist one social hierarchy or one type of class division. What all fields have in common, however, is their existence through habitus. The position of an agent in a social space is established by the agent’s habitus, combined with the agent’s capital. Bourdieu (1984) explained habitus as a system of long lasting, yet at the same time flexible and moving, dispositions (53). He stressed that the habitus is not only a classifiable object or space, it is at the same time a classifying mechanism (170). As he writes:

“The habitus is not only a structuring structure, which organizes practices and the perception of practices, but also a structured structure: the principle of division into logical classes, which organize the perception of the social world is itself the product of internalization of the division into social classes” (Bourdieu 170)

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According to Bourdieu, classes are defined by its own properties and its relational properties. The definition through relational properties is then automatically also a system of definition through differences. He states: “social identity is defined and asserted through difference” (172).

The way we do things can become a structure when people in the same (social) place start acting the same way. The longer one has lived in a habitus, the more easily one can come by and perform the “correct” behaviour. The habitus can thus be a system of values, but also of expressed rules. These can for instance be cultural practices one becomes accustomed to, but also of law regulations that have been written down (Taylor 43). However, as Taylor points out, expressed rules emerge out of an inarticulate sense existent in our bodies: “it is this habitus which “activates” the rules” (43). According Bouveresse, Bourdieu’s notion of habitus lies in between the idea that knowledge is given as a brute set of rules and the idea that knowledge is a system of links that need to be understood (49). The notion of habitus thus identifies the lack of foundationalism. According to Bourdieu, people are tied together on the basis of taste. argues that taste is “a system of classificatory schemes” (174). Even though this system is not always detected consciously, the higher one moves in the social hierarchy, the more value is being attributed to mutual taste (174). While taste is the binding factor between people of the same habitus, it is also a mechanism that shapes the habitus. It is a product, but also a generator of the same system. Bourdieu stresses that economic factors influence this process and make able or impossible the development of taste (175).

In order to understand why Bourdieu sees taste as a key element of distinction, it is necessary to understand Bourdieu’s view on classes and social hierarchy. As Joppke explains, Bourdieu’s idea of class differences is not limited to class differences produced by economic differences. Bourdieu argued that class differences occur as a result of the individual’s strive for distinction. This entails that classes are not only reproduced, but also actively produced by cultural practices (54). Bourdieu furthermore splits the notion of capital into economic, cultural, social and symbolic capital (Joppke 57). With the exception of economic capital, these cannot easily be expressed in monetary value. Cultural capital can be acquired through education in school, but the cultural environment in which children grow up also fosters cultural capital. That combination informs people’s access to cultural capital, which is comprised by things like speech, style and skills (Robinson and Garnier 145). Social capital refers to the relations we have with others in the form of groups, marriage and social networks (Mahar 83). Lastly, symbolic capital can be explained as prestige and authority, which can be obtained through a combination of other forms of capital (Mahar 83). It is an interaction between these forms of capital which constitute the habitus, but the habitus also constitutes capital.

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While all forms of capital are relevant when discussing the notion of class, Bourdieu argued that it is especially cultural capital through which classes are presented (69). Bourdieu studied food as an example of the classification of taste. Class differences are for instance characterized by the opposition of quantity and quality, or taste of necessity and taste of luxury (6). In terms of food, this means that some people will choose for quantity and necessity (e.g. a filling dish such as mashed potato), while others go for quality and luxury (e.g. caviar). While some perceive taste as something that flows out of your free will, others will not see the same possibilities because they are inclined to answer to necessity rather than luxury (Bourdieu 177-178)4_{. These differences make up distinction} and divide people in a social hierarchy. What is very important here, is that when Bourdieu speaks of high or low class5_{, this does not exclusively depend on a high or low income, but rather points to} refinement of taste, which is produced by a combination of all sorts of capital. Although Bourdieu argues that taste is something acquired, it should not be assumed that one can choose to which class they belong. Cultural capital is continuously established through access to economic capital and is shaped in the context of social capital. In other words, one’s place in the social hierarchy can be traced through the visibility of cultural capital, but it is produced by more than just taste. Classes hence interact with and are shaped by capital and habitus.

It is important to note that Bourdieu’s study was executed in the 1970s in France. Nonetheless, while Bourdieu’s results can no longer be representative of this time, some of his findings might still be relevant today. Therefore, I will re-examine his notion of habitus and his argumentation on the role of class and capital in the light of more recent literature, to which the next sections will be dedicated.

2.2. We are what we eat, or not?

Bourdieu’s main argument is that eating habits are driven by taste, which is the product of class and hence takes a very sociologist point of view in this matter. According to Fischler, we are – both practically and philosophically – what we eat. He explicitly claims a relationship between food and identity, which – due to the fact that identity is a complex and loaded concept – is not

4_{An example is buying the cheapest brand of cheese, even though one’s income allows for a more expensive}

kind.

5_{Bourdieu (1984) signifies the different classes by labelling them with examples, such as the senior executive}

(dominant class), the teacher (middle class) or farmer (working class) (114). However, while these examples are useful in understanding how Bourdieu perceived class, for this thesis I will rely mostly on his more general notion of class differences, which is based on his definition that “the distribution of the different classes ( and class fractions ) […] runs from those who are best provided with both economic and cultural capital to those who are most deprived in both respects (114).

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unproblematic. According to him, the food we digest shapes our bodies and thus influences our biological status. Yet, food is also a signifier, a mechanism that defines our relation to others and thus constitutes us as social beings (275-276). He states that the basic principle for this relation is the fact that human beings are omnivores, which means that we eat all sorts of things. In practice, our omnivorous lifestyle results in a tension between neophobia and neophilia, which basically means that we balance between the fear for the unknown, and the love to explore and our seek for change.

To structure these tendencies and bundle these fears, human beings not only use their biological instincts but also trust rules and norms classified by the social group one belongs to (278). The main reason one fears new food is that it needs to be incorporated and that it might affect the body. However, it not only affects the body, it also reaffirms people’s position within a culinary system, because what people eat works as a differentiator between groups (279). This means that we find it difficult to eat things we are not familiar with, even if that food is perceived as very normal in other cultures. Food does not only influence our body but also our everyday living, as well as our mind, and hence shapes our identity (286).

Fischler’s argument is supported by Fox and Ward (“You are what you eat? Vegetarianism, health and identity”), who stress the importance of the body in identity formation. They state that identities are fluid and are influenced by the appearance of the body. Because bodies are shaped by our dietary choices, the food we choose to eat influences our identity indirectly (2587). However, as they point out, “body and identity are not linked in a simple causal relationship” (2593). The main reason for a lack of direct causality is that identity is never only an individual process, but takes place in socially constructed places and hence depends upon multiple factors. According to Bisogni et al., a person’s identity related to food is “dependent on their past and present environments, their attentiveness to food and eating, and the recognition of differences” (136). It might therefore be better to see the relationship between food, place and the body not as a matter of identity formation, but more generally as a product of social and cultural phenomena.

The studies by Fischler and Bisogni et al. point to a relation between food and the body., which is where healthy food becomes interesting. All forms of eating are in constant dialogue with the body, but healthy eating is pre-eminently informed by social structures such as capital and class. Namely, all expressions of taste are based on dietary behaviour and hence on choice, whether this is culturally, economically or socially given. Yet, healthy eating adds an extra dimension of consciousness to this choice, because it not only requires eating certain products, but often also entails a restrictive relationship with food. This is not given as a result of income deprival, but comes from an internal strive to be healthy. Healthy eating hence ties in with the notion of the self, because it is a very individualistic expression of taste. Although healthy eating puts forward individualism and self-presentation, I argue it is still a product of habitus. Bourdieu for instance argued that people who

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were raised with the idea that food is a necessity (as opposed to a freedom of choice), were more likely to choose more filling and fattier dishes, even if income-wise there was no difference between them (177-178).

The distinction between food as necessity and food as luxury might not only reveal different patterns in food choice, but also different projections of the self through food. The study by Bisogni et al. for instance found that healthy eating was generally considered to be positive among the participants, but that this was based on different reasons. Among the study’s participants, some people6_{regarded healthy eating as something desirable, while others viewed healthy eating as} something necessary (136). This logic can be recognized in examples of dietary choices. Imagine for instance people who stop eating bread containing gluten because they think it will help to lose weight, as opposed to people who cannot eat gluten, because an allergy or disease will make them very sick. Although both choices might be driven by an aim to be healthy, there is a difference in the level of freedom one has in making this choice. The freedom to choose to stop eating gluten is constituted by a combination of the habitus and capital. Firstly, it should be acceptable in a person’s social environment to change a food diet based on preferences rather than necessity. Secondly, this person can rely on knowledge about the specifics of a gluten-free diet and has the money to buy gluten-free products. This evokes a combination of social, cultural and economic capital. Furthermore, this also influences the way one identifies him or herself based on this choice, which can be seen as a form of symbolic capital. It makes a difference whether you say to people “I eat gluten-free”, then when you inform people that you have Coeliac disease7_{. This shows that it is not} only about what you eat, but also why you eat what you eat. Participation in a trend such as eating gluten-free is only partly determined by your capital, i.e. your income and possessions, but also by your habitus.

2.3. Toward healthy food

In 2012, a book named The Food Hourglass8_{by Kris Verburgh, received a lot of attention in Belgium}

and the Netherlands. His book aimed at explaining how different eating habits could slow down the aging process. The book expressed direct criticism toward the Schijf van Vijf, a well-known Dutch visual manual that guides people in composing a healthy diet. Verburgh advises to refrain as much as possible from eating potatoes, bread or pasta. He furthermore states that it is better to eat plant-based dairy than dairy from animals, such as cow-milk. This is in strong contrast with the Schijf van

6_{The study was conducted among seventeen white, middle-class adults (Bisogni et al. 128)} 7_{“Couliac disease is a lifelong autoimmune disease caused by intolerance to gluten” (Couliac UK)} 8_{The original title of the Food Hourglass is De Voedselzandloper.}

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Vijf, in which animal products and carbs are an important part of the suggested diet. Moreover, in the Netherlands, a typical meal in the evening always consists of meat and potatoes. In the mornings, a lot of people eat bread and drink milk. Hence, the book was breaking with the traditional food culture existing in the Netherlands. Nonetheless, a study by Euromonitor has shown that people in the Netherlands have started to eat more cereals (such as oatmeal) for breakfast (Kist 2015). They explicitly mention Verburgh’s book as one of the reasons for this development (Euromonitor 2014).

The effect of the Food Hourglass is an example of how notions of healthy food are being challenged and how food culture is changing. What it in essence shows is a shift in hierarchy of agents in the field of food, influenced by the emergence of new knowledge about food. Due to Dutch food culture, a book such as the Food Hourglass was deemed to be controversial at first. Nonetheless, it seems to have changed consumer behaviour as well. This mechanism not only applies to the book, but to healthy food trends in general. Warren Belasco explains that food movements such as wholefood markets and healthy food were first antagonized as alternative and as part of a hippie scene. Later, they became mainstream when they were appropriated by the mass food sector to become profitable goods. Belasco uses the term counterculture, a concept developed by Roszak in the late sixties to explain counter movements in relation to mainstream society. According to Belasco, a counterculture of food functions as a coherent group with borders, but suffers from internal demographic and organizational weaknesses. What different countercultures have in common is that they go against the dominant culture, or put differently, the dominant agents in the field of food. Demographically speaking, the fact that most of the countercultures of food consisted of young, middle-class white people threatened the stability of the groups. These people grew older, became less rebellious and more mainstream. This resulted in a decrease of support from within the counterculture (107).

Meanwhile, healthy food trends have been manifested in other formats and other locations, such as online media platforms. The contributors of today’s healthy food movement are not the same people from the countercultures that Belasco described. What Belasco outlines is the emergence of a healthy food field through an interplay of mass societal structures and countercultures. Although countercultures stood on the beginning of the development, the mass food industry took over their concepts, views and products and transformed it into a mainstream trend. What is demonstrated is thus the interaction of the avant-garde – the trendsetters – and the masses in changing the food business. As Guthman explains, the fact that ‘organic’ became a trend, led restaurant owners to put pressure on organic farmers to produce more and improved products. This affected the look of organic products; where organic food was characterized by slightly curved or spotted vegetables, these products now became increasingly polished under the pressure of counter-culture economics (500). Moreover, the organic food trend worked especially well among

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the class of yuppies. Guthman’s analysis of Belasco’s counter-culture logic reveals the differences in people involved in the changing food trends. Due to the commercialization of those food trends, it is no longer the hippie but the yuppie who is involved in the emergence of healthy food.

Nestle recognizes the trend of healthy food in the market and explains that the market’s attempts to commercialize healthy food is twofold: “in addition to using health claims to sell conventional foods, food manufacturers also are developing “functional” foods—products created just so that they can be marketed using health claims” (316). The influence of healthy food trends stretches beyond the economics of food products and supermarkets. They also impact cultural practices, such as restaurants, cook books and sports magazines. Susan Bordo argues that being fit and toned as part of a healthy lifestyle is a cultural practice (267). One explanation offered for this new ‘trend’ ties in with the thought that we are able to reshape our bodies to new versions and consequently create new selves. This explanation follows the logic that in our current society, everything is possible and all options are available to us. This means, for instance, that we have the choice to eat whatever we want but at the same time we feel like we need to restrict ourselves, based on an urge for willpower and self-control (270). According to Bordo, the strive to be thin or fit is deeply embedded in our everyday life, constituted by cultural practices, such as fashion runway shows, magazines and Hollywood films (271).

2.4. Individual agency through healthy eating

Guthman underlines how the emergence of the salad has functioned as a symbol for class difference and reinforces gender stereotypes. There is a parallel between the focus on healthy food and the strive for women to be thin. Somebody who eats healthy and organic food does this from a certain position of freedom, namely the freedom to choose particular products or decline types of food in general. This implies a form of individual agency (506). While it stands for self-control and reflexivity, the salad – paradoxically - also functions as a symbol for guilt-free food (506).

The relation between women, self-control and healthy eating can be theorized by the concept of postfeminism, which is a rather disputed term that lacks consensual meaning. Gill and Scharff explain that postfeminism has sometimes been used as a synonym for third-wave feminism (3). In third-wave feminism, what is shared is the idea that feminism now ties in with freedom of choice, which indirectly emphasizes individuality (Lazar 43). According to McRobbie, postfeminism makes use of feminist premises to show that equality has been achieved, while at the same time opening up new discussions on feminism (255). This is sketched out by Genz and Brabon, who uses the tv-series Ally McBeal as an example of postfeminism. Ally McBeal is a lawyer who seems to have it all (successful, highly educated), yet comes across as anorexic and struggles with making her

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personal life to a success. Because the show is centred around a woman who has a successful career, it refers to the success of feminism. At the same time, it deflates feminism by making the strong and successful protagonist McBeal also an insecure, and at times even crazy9_{, woman (Genz and Brabon} 73). Postfeminism thus builds on the premise that feminism has been achieved, but at the same time it abandons feminism as the ‘other’. The show thereby produced an ironic image which combines the success and failure side of feminism.

According to Stover, the way women express their eating habits and fitness regime with others online is also part of postfeminist self-surveillance (1). In an in-depth analysis of a popular woman’s fitness blog, Stover argues that by posing healthy eating and extreme fitness schedules as fun, these bloggers mask their unhealthy relation to food and their obsession with body appearance. In reality, their meticulous and constant logs of eating habits and daily exercising celebrates control and performes dietary behaviour. Stover hereby claims that these blogs execute self-surveillance from a different angle as for instance pro-anorexia websites, but eventually have the same effect, which is self-regulation and body-monitoring (10). The blogs from her study mainly use food as part of the blog to achieve a fit body, which presents food as functional, rather than something enjoyable.

Nestle recognizes the shift toward a food lifestyle that is aimed at functionality. She explains that the market’s attempts to commercialize healthy food is twofold: “in addition to using health claims to sell conventional foods, food manufacturers also are developing “functional” foods— products created just so that they can be marketed using health claims” (316). The mainstream food industry thus uses health claims as a marketing strategy to convince consumers to buy their products. Through this approach, they convey the message that health can be find in products and single ingredients, rather than a healthy lifestyle or balanced diet (336-337). This indicates a rather superficial representation of what food does for our bodies. As Boepple and Thompson argue, female fitness blogs tend to focus more on appearance than on actual fitness or health and do so by posting messages of food, nutrition and exercising which are similar to messages associated with eating disorders (365). As Woolhouse et al. write, some people who put restrictions on the amount of food see themselves differently than those who identify as ‘eating disordered’, because “framing their practices in such a way positions them as healthy and responsible individuals rather than women who give into social pressures to be thin and beautiful” (Woolhouse et al. 48). This underlines the element of self-regulation and choice, which is in contrast with dieting as a necessity or fate. Next to postfeminism, this also relates closely to neoliberalism.

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Neoliberalism10_{emerged as a middle route between classic liberalism and socialism or} collectivism and advocates that a regulatory state is needed to achieve a free market. While neoliberalism is thus originally an economic and political theory, its use has been extended to other fields where the same type of structure can be recognized. As Guthman and DuPuis set forth, in the food business, this has resulted in over accumulation and surpluses of goods that were subsidized (429-430). This has led to increased commodification of things that were previously undesirable (441). Neoliberalism has thus influenced food culture by artificially creating low prices for certain goods, which can be argued to be one of the causes of the rise of obesity (429).

When the production of food reached a limit, the neoliberalist logic turned to a new solution, namely the commodification of ‘not eating’, e.g. dieting, creating artificial weight losing products and promoting the intake of vitamin supplements next to your normal food intake (441). Guthman and DuPuis claim: “the body becomes a place where capitalism’s contradictions are temporarily resolved” (442). The body hence is the connection between neoliberalism, the commodification of everything and postfeminism. It is the postfeminist idea that women are free to make their own choices and thereby create new roles and images for women, which is in return constituted by the neoliberalist structure of governing oneself by exercising restriction and control. As McRobbie explains, individuals increasingly need to rely on self-designed structures – executed “internally and individualistically” – making self-monitoring the basis for success (McRobbie 19). In this process, the individual thus moves away from set paths and creates its own route. Due to more equality, but for instance also due to globalization, the individual is offered with a larger spectrum of choices. Access to a large variety of news media, for instance, can be educational and increase cultural capital through knowledge. Being popular on social media might improve one’s symbolic capital and as such influence one’s social status.

It should however be noted that the move toward individual choice and control also inhabits class differences, constituted by the habitus which remains important. As Tincknell points out, “women’s ability to produce themselves in terms of a modern self has always been compromised; by the way in which the ideal was itself implicitly gendered and by the social and cultural limitations placed on women’s access to self-determination” (Tincknell 85). In other words, social and cultural systems still influence the ability to imagine your own path, but one also needs to have the freedom – produced by habitus and capital - to create that path.

These examples lead to the question of what role food fulfils in our society. Is it an expression of taste and distinction, or does it have a function on other levels as well? This chapter has outlined that most of the literature on food culture emphasize the importance of class, capitalist

10_{Neoliberalism is a term that was first coined in the sphere of politics, where it served as an alternative}

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and neoliberalist structures and a powerful food sector. The main consensus is that food culture is the product of an interplay between culture, social statuses and economics. Due to its intrinsic relation to the body, food also connects to notions of the self in terms of presentation and monitoring. This is especially apparent in the light of gendered relations to food. Both postfeminism as neoliberalism provide interesting grounds through which a culture of healthy food can be understood. Analyses of fitness blogs and magazines have shown how food connects to postfeminism, neoliberalism and self-monitoring. It can moreover be observed that the habitus remains an important notion in the development of food cultures, albeit presented in new ways, such as neoliberalist and postfeminist structures. This explains how the combination of self-regulation and individual freedom has contributed to the rise of healthy food and exercising as a trend. These theories form a basis for analysis of self-presentation in the case study, which will be discussed in chapter four and five. In the next chapter I will largely scope out the media landscape in which food culture is situated. I will explore whether the representation of food trends in media resembles the structures described in this chapter, or whether the online food culture follows a different trajectory. It will be interesting to examine whether power notions such as class and capital can be recognized in a media structure or if they are challenged by medium features.

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3. Food and Media

The first chapter aimed to establish a sense of what food culture is and how it can be conceptualised by notions such class, capital and habitus, but also by discussions on neoliberalism and gender. Food is both a product of structures as a structuring mechanism. This means that food habits say something about the position of a group or individual in society, while food also has the ability to influence the position of a group or individual in society. It would hence be interesting to see whether the same mechanism applies when placing food culture in a perspective of media and online representation. Is food the mediator, is it being mediated or does it do both? What is the role of the medium features in the interaction with food culture? In this chapter, I will analyse in what ways food culture interacts with the medium. Although this chapter, and this thesis in general, focuses mainly on food culture on platform Instagram, it is useful to zoom out and look from the perspective of a larger media landscape in which food culture plays a role. With this approach, I aim to describe the overall context in which food culture in media has been discussed.

3.1. From television chef to food blogger

While it is safe to say that the Internet has become a big landscape for mediation, the online world is not the only place where food culture has been displayed. Before the widespread popularity of the blogosphere or growth of Instagram, television chefs such as Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey gained world-wide fame and consequently played an important role inpaving the way for the mediation of food culture on different levels. It has taken home-cooking to a larger audience, but it has also brought professional cooking into our homes (Barnes 1). This has put food in a different perspective, which has opened the way for others to approach food differently. As Johnston and Goodman point out, celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver or Nigella Lawson make cooking seem simple and ordinary, while at the same time they represent extra-ordinariness, fostered by their status as a celebrity. According to Cairns et al., Jamie Oliver presents himself as a home cook, preparing food as a form of pleasure, rather than performing labour (594), which is creating the illusion that it is just a hobby that we could all potentially execute, while in reality his cooking relies on time investments to gain cooking skills and money to buy all sorts of specific ingredients. Not to mention the fact that his shows are produced and are thus no realistic representation of how cooking normally happens. After all, how many people will manage to actually cook a dish in fifteen minutes from his Jamie’s fifteen minute meals show?

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The show upholds a normative approach to food to the public, which includes the way we should cook, the products we should use and the pleasure we should experience when eating or cooking food (Johnston and Goodman 7). This seems paradoxical to the reality of food and the reality of them being celebrity chefs, because their suggested approach can only be activated by the right economic means and status (8). In other words, Oliver’s success is constructed by his access to cultural, symbolic and economic capital. His knowledge about food, but also his status as television chef, makes him a dominant actor in the field of food. Through cooking show’s normative approaches to food, class differences are presented. Johnston and Goodman explain: “You may not be able to eat at one of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants, or live in one of his amazing houses, but you can enjoy it vicariously on television or purchase one of his cookbooks” (8). This example embodies the notion of class, being a system of definition asserted through differences (Bourdieu 177). One’s background – or habitus – and capital play a role in establishing a difference in how one can experience food, namely eating out in an expensive restaurant, or attempting to reproduce those dishes at home from a cook book.

The combination of mediated home- and professional cooking currently shines through the international popularity of the cooking show Masterchef11_{. While shows like Masterchef rely highly}

on the personal characters of the contestants or the professional chef - either real or staged - food culture is definitely prevalent. The cameras zoom in on products, the judges explain cooking methods and the contestants tell narratives about their relation to food. This also counts for weight losing television shows, such as The Biggest Loser. It is clear that structure of such television shows has an impact on their contestants, but according to Domoff et al., it also affects the audience. They argue that watching the show strengthens the idea among the audiences that weight is controllable. Moreover, it enforces anti-fat attitudes (996), which indicates that the show does not create more understanding for being overweight. These observations fit with the idea of the neoliberalist idea of self-improvement in the battle against obesity. As Guthman explains, being thin and healthy then becomes the product of self-control, responsibility and empowerment (1116). What food television shows thus have in common is that the interaction with food is prioritized over the food itself, which demonstrates the relationship between food and forms of capital.

The relation between food culture and capital also shows through the practice of writing restaurant reviews. On review websites, the expression of the experience with food culture is more important than the food experience itself, since reviews are written on a computer, tablet or phone

11_{Masterchef is a television program where contestants compete a battle of winning the title of best chef. The}

show has more than ten national versions. Next to the regular show, it has also led to a spin-off version for children.

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and hence usually take place outside of the restaurant and at a different moment. By then, the actual eating experience has already passed and what is left is the expression of that experience which apparently, review writers felt the need to publish online. Moreover, it is the expression of personal taste as well as expression of the self, rather than simply an eating experience. People write reviews from a perspective of personal taste, and thereby says something about the person who wrote it. Restaurant reviews are thus about more than just food. While the eating experience is the topic, it is the mediation of that topic that acts in the centre of attention; this increases symbolic capital for review writers, as they become authorities through their accounts of reviews. By writing reviews, people not only mediate what exists in food culture, they also contribute to food culture and hence become agents in the field of food. As written by Ye et al, reviews have the power to influence decisions of website visitors in terms of what they want to buy (638). Naturally, this is a development that exists in other food-related media as well, such as blogs and television. As Grimes and Harper write: “technologies, media outlets, and media personalities are frequently responsible for setting the trends and influencing consumer behaviour” (473).

Another online food practice fitting in this development is the rise of food blogs. The Oxford Dictionary defines blogs as “A regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style” (Oxford Dictionary “Blog”). Blogs are furthermore defined as online media where one person starts a conversation and readers give comments (Thevenot 287). Other characteristics entail the existence of text, links, photos or videos. Blogs are often updated in an irregular schedule and most of them contain personal or informal information. Moreover, blogs are usually searchable for topics and keywords (Pham 4). According to Blood, the activity of blogging has changed in correlation with software developments. At first, a weblog was a single webpage and the blog community dependent on links to each other’s weblogs. These links could only be made to the main page; in order to read the article someone suggested, one had to browse the whole page until it was found. With the invention of permalinks, it became possible to link to a separate entry, which changed the blogosphere massively (53-54). One result of this technological change was the emergence of amateurs in the field, because the permalink was a feature provided by weblog software packages. For handcoders, like Blood, it became more and more difficult to keep up with the technology being developed in the industry, making them invisible in those areas they are not able to reproduce the same techniques (54-55). Blood argues that as a result of these software packages and changes in technology, the blogosphere became the area for “diaries”, rather than weblogs, stressing that weblogs are about links (54).

Blood’s observation from 2004 goes against current blogging practices. Nowadays, blogs not only rely on user subscriptions, which encourages the interaction with the audience, but also the

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presence of blogs on social media. Weltevrede and Helmond describe this shift in the blogosphere as the rise of ‘platformlogs’. Platformlogs include features from social media platforms on the blog and refer to social media presence through buttons in a side bar (Weltevrede and Helmond). When looking beyond the blog and into the social media platforms, it can be observed that the way content is created and shared, similarities arise between social media accounts and blogs. In terms of content, social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram present user diaries on a small scale, which other users are able to follow. Furthermore, a system of hashtags, followers and @mentions has created new ways of linking that goes beyond the permalink to an article.

One could argue that food blogs show examples of the challenges Blood coined. Most food blogs contain multiple webpages (as opposed to one long thread) and work with permalinks to specific recipes. Food blogs can contain photos of food, recipes, restaurant reviews or other food related information. As McGaughey writes, “food blogs have become a wildly popular platform for individuals to write about their recipes, restaurant meals, opinions, and food experiences in a public forum” (69). Consequently, the emergence of blogs have made the individual an important judge of taste. This is in line with Blood’s description of blogs as “diaries”. Furthermore, the existence of websites such as Blogspot.com, Blogger.com or Wordpress indeed allow people to create their own blog using free weblog hosting services without needing much technological skills. These platforms at the same time offer a community setting through which users can engage with each other’s blogs. In relation to social media platforms, one can observe that for instance on Instagram, users make contributions to food culture in the same way bloggers do, but on a smaller scale. They make photos, list ingredients and share these posts with followers. Describing these developments in media puts forward ways in which different types of media platforms connect in terms of content making, linking and self-presentation. In relation to food culture, analysing these differences and similarities reveals ways in which food serves as an object of mediation or as a mediating agent. This role of agency is particularly interesting; who fulfils what role?

According to Samdanis and Gkiousou, social media and food blogs accelerate the process in which food stories are shared with others. The interaction with other people’s eating habits can be an inspiration to explore new tastes and dishes. Next to acceleration, it also means that certain practices that used to be private – e.g. cooking or eating – are now shared with a bigger audience (224). They distinguish three effects of hybridisation through food blogs. Firstly, they argue that a food blog involves the development of different disciplines. Not only does one need to know how to cook, but also how to photograph a dish and write a good story. This directly invokes cultural capital, which is indirectly shaped by one’s background and access to other forms of capital. Again, this shows that class is a crucial factor here at stake, because it is not simply talent that will make

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somebody a successful blogger; one needs to pay for a camera, have learned how to write and have access to a computer. Not to mention that food blogs rely heavily on taste, which is something that cannot be developed in one day, but is really part of the social structure of habitus and class. Secondly, they point out that a blog evolves through a hybridisation of roles, between the blogger and the users, but also between experts and non-experts. Thirdly, they argue that there is a hybridisation of practices, which means that food practices and technology are highly intertwined and together constitute the blog (224-225).

The extent to which hybridisation can take place depends on the interaction between users of technology and the interface, through which food culture is mediated. If the medium only offers a representation of food culture, then there is no interaction taking place. The interface could therefore be seen as an agent. Cramer and Fuller state that “interfaces link software and hardware to each other and to their human users or other sources of data” (149). They argue that the interface is the place where the different elements unite. Software, hardware and users all fulfil a different role and the interface brings these roles together. In doing so, it also reveals the power balance, because it emphasizes what hardware, software and users can and cannot do (150). When users interact with the medium, the action taking place is more than mediation, because it performs reflectivity. In other words, interaction with the interface also reveals the agency power of the interface. As Lee, Samdanis and Gkiousou explain, in relation to food culture, a transparent interface which lacks interactivity may deepen the level of representation of food cultures, but a reflective and interactive interface will lead to a mingling of food cultures in terms of people that are involved, products that are being used and the mixture of technology and food. Reflectivity through the interface thus leads to a hybridization of food cultures (227). For instance, an application that shows you recipes is at first sight transparent, but can become reflective when it allows you to add comments or share the recipe with friends. Food blogs in that regard add to food culture, because they draw the reader into their experiences through comments and have the ability to really inspires people to try food or restaurants that they have not tried before.

3.2. Online and offline hybridization

Many food bloggers start of as amateurs, but some end up making money writing about food. This ties in with the blurry line in the food blog world between amateurs and professionals. Something that starts as a hobby, set up unprofessionally from within a home kitchen and iPhone photography, can gradually become more professional. The fact that a food blogger often develops a combination of different skills (i.e. writing, photography, web developing), requires some form of dedication and

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practice (207). This adds to gaining cultural capital, because one becomes more educated about food and media practices. It should be noted that this automatically assumes class differences, as it requires Internet access, devices and spare time to invest in such a hobby. As Cox and Blake write, some bloggers put a lot of effort in examining their audiences (213). This, in turn, requires time and not rarely also money investments, such as kitchen appliances or a quality photo camera. In order to find support, bloggers rely on a community and network of other bloggers, but they may also be supported financially by PR companies. In those cases, a company pays a blogger to promote food products (208). One could thus argue that food blogs not only produce cultural value, but also economic value. In the shift from amateur to professional, the production of content as well as the reception by the audience and the financial support thus play a role. This production is not limited to the original medium. As Cox and Blake note, professional food bloggers may also appear on television or publish cook books (208). Yet, according to Rousseau, in contrast to celebrity chefs on television, food bloggers stand less at a distance with their audience and thus make connections more directly with other bloggers and people who follow them (11).

What all of these examples show is that ‘traditional agents’ in the field of food – such as the professional chef, the critic, the home cook or the one invited to eat dinner – are either put into different roles by the medium, or use the medium to fulfil a different role. This means for instance that everybody can become a critic by writing reviews online and that the celebrity chef in a way becomes the home cook, because he cooks in your living room, on a television screen. Moreover, by posting photos of homemade meals, the individual can outgrow his status as home cook and become famous through social media platforms. What this affects are social relations in the field of food. As demonstrated by the example of reviews, engaging with media in the realm of food culture informs people’s ability to contribute to food culture itself. Not only does this affect food culture, it also affects their own status, and their own cultural capital. The forms of mediation I have described here challenge the idea that social relations and the habitus – as described in the previous chapter – are the most important factors determining taste and influencing food culture. I would like to argue that food is more than just an expression of taste; it is also a medium that is used for self-enrichment. As such, it has the ability to re-establish the habitus and social relations. One should therefore see it as an interplay between food, media and the habitus.

One can draw from this that food culture is not simply the topic of mediation; food culture and media are multi-directed. Through interaction and hybridisation, food and technology are both shaping actors that jointly contribute to food culture. As Rousseau writes, new media practices have changed the food landscape and have led to new spaces where people can talk about food. These spaces can be formed online – think of online recipe sharing, social media networks or forums, and

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review websites – but also offline. People who originally shared thoughts about food online, also meet in person, for instance at blogger conventions (x-xi). The way social media platforms are built enable people, who might not know each other personally, to meet each other online and offline. The online and offline world, or technology and human beings, are thus not two completely separate worlds. This interactive structure makes it interesting to zoom in to Instagram, as this is a platform where users easily connect to each other and, as a consequence, are able to contribute to food culture in a dynamic matter. As discussed before, the shift from the traditional blog to a platformlog might now be extended to a new type of food blog: an Instagram food blog. How does food culture behave on a platform that is mainly accessed through a mobile device? Zooming into Instagram allows me to address the question that is most relevant to me, namely in what ways food culture is being mediated and to what extent food culture itself is a mediating mechanism.

3.3. Food selfies: instagramming your food

On Instagram, users express themselves by posting photos or videos. Photos from the application were previously easily recognized by their use of enhancement filters (Tekulve and Kelly 5), but also by their typical square frame, which gave all photos and videos an Instagram signature. Although this still characterizes Instagram, now there are increasingly developing other photo manipulation applications12_{, which makes it more difficult to distinguish which app created the photo.} Nonetheless, as Instagram also offers connections to other platforms, such as Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter, the brand ‘Instagram’ is often shown in the social media landscape. Like other social media platforms, Instagram follows the structure of posting, sharing and connecting. Instagram’s connectivity is furthermore fostered by the fact that many people have multiple social media accounts. As Xu et al. have found, many people on Instagram also have a Twitter and Facebook account, which shows strong cross-platform alignment (282).

It is clear that the technological steps taken in the process of digitizing photography and the emergence of online networks have enabled the options for photosharing. As Litt and Hargittai write, “the advent of personal web sites and online communities with photo-sharing capabilities, such as Facebook and Flickr, have provided Internet users the opportunity to share their photos with wider and asynchronous audiences—a very drastic change from how people traditionally shared their photos of everyday life prior to the 21st century” (2). Van Dijck, however, stresses that the trend toward using photography for interaction and social connections has not been caused by digitization