Towards Bottom-Up Analysis of Social Food

in ACM Digital Health Conference 201

Bread stories: understanding the drivers of bread consumption for digital food customisation

Consumer demand for food that satisfies specific needs rather than generic mass produced food is growing. In response, the food industry is actively investigating techniques for efficient and comprehensive food customisation. Digital approaches to food customisation are starting to emerge, however, the majority is currently limited to the ingredient level thus excluding consumption drivers such as people’s practices and values around food. Using the approach of cultural probes, we identified four distinct narratives around bread consumption: the healthy bread, the fresh bread, the ethical bread, and the exceptional bread. These themes encapsulate drivers of bread consumption, which we argue can inform the design of digital food innovation platforms

Aesthetics of Food: The Role of Visual Framing Strategies for Influence Building on Instagram

This thesis employs quantitative content analysis to investigate how social media influencers use aesthetic image design to engage followers. The study investigates the ten most-followed food influencers on Instagram in the United States. The study looks at the effectiveness of visual framing strategies, focusing on the images (N = 120) of influencers which have received more than 10,000 likes in 2017. Results show that food influencers prefer to post images about cooked food, without any decorations, using high contrast colors and close-up shots. Raw food images were found to be associated with cluttered composition and far away shoots, whereas cooked food images were associated with high contrast and close-up, especially the top-down camera angle. An instructive perspective emphasizes the importance of considering how food can be accommodated within the framework of a meal, and it regards taste as an approach to describing aesthetic norms. Concerning the presentation, the gestures, and the presentation of the meal, food provides a new way that helps people to think and constitute social relations. The author offers a theoretical account of food influencers’ strategies to summarize how the exercise of taste marks a significant omission in our understanding of visual analysis regarding social capital and aesthetic discrimination. This study represents a step toward a more cogent and digital-focused aspect of visual framing. The results imply benefits that would accrue to companies with interesting approaches to develop communication strategies linked to food. The effects of image-based dietary communication provide implications for visual communication to replicate and expand upon the successes of the influencers in the public interest. The results also have implications for advertising and the use of social media within marketing

Personal Branding Strategies of Female Entertainment Influencers on TikTok

This thesis employs quantitative content analysis to investigate the strategies used by female entertainment influencers (FEI) on TikTok to attract followers. The study investigated the six FEIs with the most followers on the TikTok and Douyin (Chinese version of TikTok), three each from both platforms. This study focuses on the visual framework strategy as the theoretical basis to analyze female entertainment influencers’ videos (N=90). The results show that FEIs tend to wear casual clothes and shoot videos with simple backgrounds. Most shooting angles are half-length or full-body shots, which do not display multiple feminine movements in videos. Regression analyses were conducted to estimate the relationships between the sixteen categories and the number of likes and reposts for videos. Regression analyses showed that, among the sixteen variables, breast, stance, and facial expression have a noticeable influence on the number of likes while the number of reposts was significantly affected by breast and stance. Moreover, quantitative analysis using the one-way ANOVA test and frequency analysis established differences in strategies between FEIs who use different versions of TikTok. One such difference is the preference of Chinese FEIs to use complicated editing techniques on Douyin, while American FEIs choose simple editing procedures on TikTok. Similarly, only less than a quarter of Chinese FEIs’ videos depict the body’s casual touching, which is significantly lower than that of American FEIs in frequency. By collecting videos of each influencer at different phases of their popularity, the author makes an effort to reveal influencers’ strategies for establishing personal branding. The findings of this research help extend the current body of knowledge regarding the use of visual framing on emerging social media by recommending better applications of personal branding strategies. Moreover, this study makes up for the lack of literature on the influence and significance of female influencers on the TikTok platform. Influencers build their personal brands and communities through unique tastes, and the results of this study will be informative for marketing and personal brand building on new social media. This study also provides specific information and guidance for female users for marketing their personal brands targeting specific markets and user groups on TikTok

Sosiaalisen median ennustekyky kaupan myynnissä : esimerkkinä veganismi ja vegaaniset ruuat

Sosiaalisen median aineistoja on pyritty hyödyntämään ennustemalleissa esimerkiksi vaalitulosten, työttömyysasteen, osakekurssien tai kuluttajatuotteiden kysynnän ennakoinnissa. Laajempia kulutusilmiöitä on kuitenkin harvemmin pyritty ennustamaan sosiaalisen median avulla. Tämä tutkimus keskittyy veganismiin, viime vuosina pinnalla olleeseen kulutusilmiöön, vertaamalla sitä koskevien sosiaalisen median viestien määrää vegaanisten kasvimaitotuotteiden myyntiin. Analysoimalla viikoittaista myyntimäärää ja sosiaalisen median hakusanaryppäiden osumien määrää vuodesta 2012 vuoteen 2016 autoregressivisen vektorivirheenkorjausmallin (VECM) avulla tämä tutkimus osoittaa, että kasvimaitotuotteiden myynnillä sekä sosiaalisen median viesteillä on olemassa pitkän aikavälin riippuvuussuhde. Yleistä ilmiötä, veganismia, koskevat viestit selittivät kasvimaitotuotteiden myyntiä, mutta kyseisiä tuotteita koskevat viestit eivät. Myynnin ennustamisessa toimii kuitenkin parhaiten pelkkään myyntiaineistoon pohjautuva SARIMAX-ennuste.Peer reviewe

Modelling on Social Media: Influencing Young Adults’ Food Choices

The aim of this study was to investigate whether social media influence young adults’ food choices through social modelling. Before the main study, a pilot was conducted to improve and develop scales for measuring the influence of social modelling, as well as some control variables. In the main study, 354 young adult participants (ages 18-35) were recruited through social media and completed an online questionnaire. They were randomly assigned to a modelling or control condition by choosing one of two colors and were then either exposed to a series of Instagram screenshots depicting modelling of eating behaviour (modelling condition) or Instagram screenshots depicting the same meal on its own (control condition). The participants were then asked about their attitudes, perception of healthiness and likelihood of consumption of the meal presented. The degree to which participants use social media to make food-related decisions and their interest in the healthiness of their food were used as control variables. Results showed that there was no significant difference between attitudes, consumption, or health perception in the two conditions. Limitations of the study and their possible influence on the results are discussed, as are suggestions for future research