Fake News vs. Healthy Diet Catarina Mafalda Barreiro Pestana de Vasconcelos Dissertation submitted as partial requirement to obtain the degree of Master in Business Administration Advisor: Prof. Dr. Renato Lopes da Costa, ISCTE Business School, Marketing, Operations and General Management Department September, 2019 Fake News vs Healthy Diet Acknowledgements Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor, Professor Dr. Renato Costa, for his unconditional support and help during this thesis dissertation. His guidance was critical for the success of this journey, and I feel very honored to have received his valuable and experienced recommendations, furthermore Professor Dr. Renato Lopes da Costa was al- ways ready to help and patiently guided me throughout the thesis. I would also like to show my gratitude, to Dr. Lídia Tarré, Administrator at Gelpeixe, who suggested, during my master’s degree, the implementation of an academic work in her com- pany, which gave way to the theme of this thesis dissertation. Additionally, I need to thank Dr. Lídia Tarré, for introducing me to my advisor, Professor Dr. Renato Lopes da Costa. My sincere thanks also go to the nutritionist Filipa Abreu, who very diligently clarified all my technical uncertainties and a critical help during the interviews process. I am very grateful to my aunt, Dr. Joana Vasconcellos, who helped me with the language re- view. Despite holding an advanced certificate in English, English is not my mother tongue. Hence my aunt, for whom English is the second language, gave me a useful hand with the language challenge. Last, but not least, a deep thank you goes to my family, for all the support, inspiration and understanding during the master’s degree and thesis dissertation. They were always ready to help in each and every way they could, always very encouraging and enthusiastic throughout the process. ii Fake News vs Healthy Diet Abstract Today we live in a globalized world, with no boundaries, and where we can be updated of any information by the minute. This globalization phenomenon has a lot of advantages as well as disadvantages. It is wonderful to know the news by the minute, however the easiness and swift- ness real news spreads, same goes to the false news. Tools, such as search engines like Google, Bing, Yandex, etc. Social Media (i.e. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) or Blogs, are turning the information sharing easier, but uncontrolled. Online it is very difficult to assess the reliability of news or information. On these lines, at present, a hotly debated and widely spread topic deals with diets and a healthier life. I mean to say, people are adopting new diets and consuming products that someone online declares they are healthier and offer added benefits. Therefore, this study seeks to understand the reliability of these new diet trends, who are these people that shared the information, and the impact of it on the society. Keywords: Advertising, Marketing, International Transfer of Knowledge and Sponsorship JEL classification: - M300 Marketing and Advertising: General - O330 Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes ii Fake News vs Healthy Diet Resumo Actualmente vivemos num mundo globalizado. É possível estar constantemente informado sem qualquer tipo de barreiras. Este fenómeno a que chamamos de globalização vem trazer à soci- edade um conjunto de vantagens assim como de desvantagens, o facto de podermos saber o que se passa no mundo ao minuto é um excelente avanço, contudo com toda a facilidade de partilha de informação é difícil apurar a veracidade da mesma. Ferramentas como motores de busca (Google, Bing. Yandex, etc) Redes Sociais (ex. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), ou Blogues, têm facilitado a partilha de informação, contudo esta mesma partilha não tem qualquer controlo. Como consequência, actualmente é difícil apurar a veracidade da informação disponível online. Seguindo esta linha de pensamento, um tópico actual bastante debatido e partilhado diz respeito a dietas e estilo de vida saudável. As pessoas estão a começar a adoptar novas dietas e produtos que "alguém" online afirma ser mais saudável e ter um conjunto de benefícios para a saúde. Com base nesta tendência, esta dissertação procura compreender a veracidade e autenticidade destas novas dietas, quem são estas pessoas que estão a partilha-las, e o impacto que esta nova tendência pode ter na sociedade. Palavras-Chave: Publicidade, Marketing, Transferência Internacional de Conhecimento, Pa- trocínio Classificação JEL: - M300 Marketing and Advertising: General - O330 Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes iv Fake News vs Healthy Diet Index Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. i Abstract ................................................................................................................................... ii Resumo ................................................................................................................................... iii List of Figures ......................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables .......................................................................................................................... vii List of Abbreviations ........................................................................................................... viii Chapter I - Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Contextualization .................................................................................................. 1 1.2. Investigation Issue ................................................................................................. 2 1.3. Objectives (theoretical and empirical) .................................................................... 3 1.4. Thesis Structure ...................................................................................................... 5 Chapter II – Healthy Food/Diet ............................................................................................ 9 2.1 Contextualization ................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Historical Data ....................................................................................................... 11 2.3 The food industry influence ................................................................................... 13 2.4 Food Politics .......................................................................................................... 23 Chapter III – Fake News ..................................................................................................... 29 3.1 Contextualization .................................................................................................. 29 3.2 How to identify fake news ..................................................................................... 31 3.3 Social Media Network ........................................................................................... 32 3.4 Impact on food preferences ................................................................................... 38 iv Fake News vs Healthy Diet Chapter IV - Theoretical Approach ................................................................................... 40 Chapter V - Methodology .................................................................................................... 45 5.1 Investigation model ............................................................................................... 45 5.2 Sample description ................................................................................................ 49 5.3 Categorization and coding of the corpus of the interviews .................................... 52 Chapter VI – Results (presentation and discussion) .......................................................... 58 6.1 What is “healthy diet”? .......................................................................................... 59 6.2 Is the industry’s influence a current problem? ....................................................... 62 6.3 Which are the latest food tendencies? .................................................................... 67 6.4 Which are the methods used to influence? ............................................................. 69 6.5 What is fake news, how to identify it, and how it spreads? ................................... 69 6.6 Do they have real impact? ...................................................................................... 73 Chapter VII - Conclusions ................................................................................................... 76 7.1 Final considerations ............................................................................................... 76 7.2 Contribution for the study of the Art ..................................................................... 77 7.3 Contribution for business management ................................................................. 77 7.4 Suggestions for further investigations ................................................................... 78 7.5 Academic experience ............................................................................................ 79 7.6 Limitations ...........................................................................................................