Food Television and the processes of globalization A qualitative analysis of culture, representation and identity in the context of cultural globalization portrayed in Food Television Preslava Petkova Media and Communication studies: Culture, Collaborative Media and Creative Industries First-year Master thesis | 15 credits Submitted: HT 2020 | 2020-08-19 Supervisor: Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt Student: Preslava Petkova | [email protected] ​ Examiner: Solveig Daugaard MA Thesis Media and Communication Preslava Petkova Abstract 3 Introduction 4 1.1 Layout 5 Background 6 2.1 Food Media 6 2.2 Interest in intercultural food 8 2.3 Netflix as global phenomenon 10 2.4 Ugly Delicious 14 Grounded Theory Approach 16 3.1 Introduction to Grounded theory 16 3.2 Why Grounded theory? 18 3.3 Use of Grounded theory 18 3.4 Theoretical framework 19 3.4.1 Theoretical concepts 20 Globalization, Identity and Representation 21 4.1 Globalization 22 4.2 Identity 24 4.3 Representation in Food Media 26 Methodology 28 5.1 Research Design 28 5.2 Constructivists paradigm 31 Ethics 33 Analysis and Findings 34 7.1 Formal analysis 35 7.2 Contextual Analysis 38 7.3 Representation 41 7.4 Discussion 44 7.5 Limitations 47 Conclusion 47 References 50 Appendix 53 10.1 Codebook/ Season 1 53 10.2 Codebook / Season 2, Episode 2 (example) 56 10.3 Focused codes 59 10.4 Episode 1/ Season 2 61 1 MA Thesis Media and Communication Preslava Petkova Abstract This paper presents the initiative to research on Food Television and the processes of globalization. The research gap in the selected subject area is identified after an in-depth literature review and watching the culinary documentary ‘Ugly Delicious’. According to scholars globalization processes are influenced by the use of Media, as different channels are transmitting values shared by globalization. Over the years, globalization has developed sub-process such as cultural globalization, a term which refers to the merge of cultures and the formation of a global one. The identified research gap is to translate how globalization has been communicated in a culinary documentary. The title of the research is, therefore “Food Television and the processes of globalization: How does ‘Ugly Delicious’ use representations to portray cultural globalization?”, as it addresses the most pertinent research gap. Using visual data, such as video, requires a qualitative approach in which the content can be coded and later linked to theoretical knowledge. The role of the researcher is to find examples or patterns that represent cultural globalization within the frame of the two seasons of the documentary. The method which shapes this qualitative research is the Grounded Theory approach. A coding sheet will be generated to present the process and the logic of generating codes. Keywords: Global development, Food Media, Globalization, Cultural identity, Cultural imperialism, Representation 2 MA Thesis Media and Communication Preslava Petkova 1. Introduction Food has always been perceived as a representation of cultural and economic capital (Bourdieu, 1896). In recent years of media development, food presence in diverse media platforms has allowed more and more people to develop a relation or an interest in food. Since traveling might not be an option for some, culinary shows facilitate the аccess to foreign cuisines and traditions. Prior to the 1980s ethnic media presence has been significantly lower than today’s, due to racial inequality (Hodkinson, 2017, p.224). Even though the situation of representation of cultural groups in the media has improved, there is still under-representation in key-decision making roles (Phillips, 2006). Being a communication and media student has brought to light that one can relate almost every matter in daily life to the study field with the right arguments. What personally attracted me about this topic is my interest and affection for food. Watching multiple culinary TV programs made me think about how much one learns about different cultures, traditions, and heritage by watching such shows. It appeared to me that food as a medium is very powerful in representing different ethnicities. The field of Food media in cultural identification taps on theories for representation, globalization, cultural identity, mediatization. As it has appeared in my literature research, there is a gap between the Food Media studies and Globalization theory, which I am interested in covering. Therefore the following paper is focused on the topic of food media, more specifically Netflix food documentaries revised through the lens of Globalization. The overall aim of the thesis is to discover how representations of different cultures, identities, and foods are used to portray cultural globalization. To cover the identified gap, a research question has been formulated: How is cultural globalization portrayed in Netflix’s culinary show “Ugly Delicious”? Providing arguments and proof for answering the posed question will be the focus of this study. 3 MA Thesis Media and Communication Preslava Petkova 1.1 Layout The layout paragraph aims to explain the flow of the thesis in the different sections. As it will become obvious later on, this paper follows an unusual structure, due to the interdisciplinary nature of the study, combined with my personal vision. The study carries the basis of the Sociological approach transmitted and adapted to the field of Media and Communication. In the introduction part, the overall goal is to welcome the reader to the main context of the paper and to present the research gap, I am trying to cover with the stated research question. Following is Background, whose purpose is providing an overview of the context of the researched media, introducing the themes that guide this paper, and presenting the main source of data. This section aids the reader to build an understanding of Food Media and excel the transition to further paragraphs. Going forward is where the usual structure of the Master thesis is broken and adapted to serve the purposes of this study. Introducing the Grounded Theory Approach section is placed in a front position as it shapes the paper and explains the structure of the findings. The theoretical framework presents concepts that will, later on, serve as major tools in analyzing the collected data and gathering arguments to answer the research question. In addition to the section definitions of main theoretical concepts are provided for further relating them to the codes extracted from the data. The following section Globalization, Identity, and Representation serves a literature review. The work of scholars has been used as the key to understanding the basics of globalization and the different aspects of the process. Identity is an important term in order to understand the culture and therefore cultural globalization, observation of previous work has been used to set the basics knowledge on the notions identity and cultural identity. And lastly, the representation section aims to unpack the concept of cultural or individual representation in the food media concept. The Methodology paragraph discusses ​ the research design and presents the steps taken. It also elaborates on the choice of paradigm together with the limitation of the paper. In the Ethics section, a few considerations, applicable to every researcher writing a similar paper, have been outlined. Most importantly the analysis does not involve direct contact with the public, which excludes the paper from major ethical issues. After gathering all the information needed, 4 MA Thesis Media and Communication Preslava Petkova follows the Analysis and findings section. It is separated into four parts. The first one is the formal analysis which provides a summary of the episodes and the most important themes and sub-themes from which the focus codes have been consisted. Then is a turn off the contextual analysis where the codes and themes from data are related and explained in the context of the main concepts - globalization, identity, and representation, eluding to second last step of the analysis - representation - where the is presented what are the signs of cultural globalization found through representations in the data. Lastly, there is the discussion segment which attempts to round everything together, before a concise final sum-up of the thesis is offered in the Conclusion section. 2. Background The Background section serves as guidance through the phenomenons that have an impact on the research field. Having in mind the paper uses data from what is considered part of the Food Television, it builds a basic understanding of the subjects that will later appear in the data. It also introduces the media platform Netflix and briefs on the main data source. 2.1 Food Media Food has been a topic, dating since the beginning of the world. It is considered shaping and mirroring all forms of human experience and cultural identity (Frye & Bruner, 2013). It is a key marker for societies, cultures, states, and ages, while its importance cuts over these classifications. For a bigger scope, food production carries both bringing order and turmoil to local, provincial, national, and international scenes and controls economies throughout the world. Absence of access to food can cause deaths, ailments, and in severe cases even war. With the emergence of media platforms it food has evolved and became democratized, and accessible to the mass consumer. Food medium includes books, magazines, tv shows, programs, and movies, as well as podcasts. Food media’s reach is estimated at hundreds of millions of people all over the world. The Food Network is one of the first founded food TV media focusing on cooking. Since its launch in 1993, a relationship between food and culture has been established by involving features of 5 MA Thesis Media and Communication Preslava Petkova international traveling, food ecologies, homemaking, entertainment, and competitions (Kelly, 2017, p.1). During the past two decades, the media talks about food have multiplied.