Grab Your Fork: A Netnographic Study of a Foodie Blog and its Community. Pamela Jeanette Watson A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Bournemouth University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy At Bournemouth University OCTOBER 2013 1 | P a g e This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its’ copyright rests with its author and due acknowledgement must always be made of the use of any material contained in, or derived from, this thesis. 2 | P a g e Dedication: To Mike, my friend and mentor, without whom this work would not have been possible. You are sorely missed. 3 | P a g e Abstract Pamela Jeanette Watson Grab Your Fork: A Netnographic Study of a Foodie Blog and its Community. Colloquially known as foodies (Barr & Levy, 1984), there is a group of people who have a deep interest in food and eating. Such people are often skilled amateurs (Stebbins, 1992), with a high level of knowledge about food and ingredients. Foodies collect food experiences, and visits to celebrated restaurants, much as tourists collect souvenirs (Morgan et al. 2008). Many foodies are well-off people from the middle classes who are also internet users. For them, online consumer reviews have become an important information resource, in particular food blogs which provide amateur restaurant reviews (Zhu & Zhang, 2010; Pantalidis, 2010). Those who do read food blogs prefer their reviews to those of supposedly “professional” reviewers who work for traditional publications, as bloggers are seen as more independent. Such amateur reviews aid in spreading word of mouth attitudes within a community of consumption. The members of these groups furthermore share their knowledge with each other via the medium of the blog. This thesis is based on two major areas of theory, and applies them to the concepts of foodism and food blogging for the first time. Firstly the thesis critically examines the key themes of foodism and food blogging as a form of Serious Leisure. Helen Yee is a foodie whose intense interest in food and eating is so strong that she writes a blog, called Grab Your Fork, with almost daily posts on the food which she has eaten. This “citizen journalism” (Bruns, 2007) takes her blogging into the Serious Leisure arena. Secondly, Tajfel and Turner’s (1979) theory on Social Identity Theory has not previously been applied to either foodie communities or blogging communities. In the case of Grab Your Fork the network of individuals who have developed an on-line community are also foodies, so the example was able to be applied to both situations, and was shown to be an 4 | P a g e appropriate model to explain such a community. The attachment of emotional involvement to the group and their values and ethos structure as presented within this theory links to the concept of Serious Leisure in that in Social identity Theory, it is the self-confirmation as being an in-group member or out-group member that defines a person’s definition of themselves (Shamir, 1992). KEYWORDS: Serious Leisure, foodies, food blogs, online communities, identity, Social Identity Theory, restaurant marketing, social media 5 | P a g e List of Contents Copyright Statement………………………………………………………...2 Abstract .......................................................................................................... 4 List of Figures .............................................................................................. 10 List of Tables................................................................................................ 11 1. Introduction .......................................................................................... 12 1.1 Background ................................................................................... 12 1.2 Rationale ........................................................................................ 14 1.3 Aims & Objectives ........................................................................ 18 1.4 Structure of the thesis .................................................................... 19 2. Food Blogging as a Leisure Activity ................................................... 21 2.1 Who or What is a Foodie? ............................................................. 21 2.2 Computer Mediated Communications ........................................... 22 2.3 Online Communities of Interest .................................................... 23 2.4 Web logs ........................................................................................ 25 2.5 The Structures of Blogs ................................................................. 27 2.5.1 The Single Blog Community ..................................................... 30 2.5.2 Central Connecting Topic Community ...................................... 31 2.5.3 Boundaried Communities .......................................................... 33 2.6 Communities ..................................................................................... 34 2.7 Steps to Becoming a Community Member ....................................... 38 2.8 Types of Online Community Participation ................................... 40 2.9 Who Are Bloggers? ........................................................................... 42 2.9.1 Motivations for Blogging ............................................................... 43 2.9.2 Basic styles of blog content ............................................................ 45 2.9.3 Frequency of Posting ...................................................................... 45 2.9.4 Topics Blogged About ................................................................... 46 2.9.5 Length of Time They Have Been Blogging .................................. 46 2.9.6 Where They Blog From ................................................................. 47 2.9.7 The Growing Credibility of Blogs .................................................. 47 2.10 Chapter Summary ...................................................................... 49 3 Consumer Experience, Serious Leisure & Identity in a Postmodern World............................................................................................................ 51 3.1. Introduction ................................................................................... 51 3.2 The Managerial Perspective: Experiential Marketing ................... 52 3.3 The Consumer Experience Perspective ......................................... 56 3.4 The Consumer Experience in a Postmodern World ...................... 59 3.4.1 A Radical Change of Paradigm for Marketing .......................... 60 6 | P a g e 3.4.2 Postmodern Experiences ............................................................ 61 3.4.1 The Eight Realms of Experiences .............................................. 62 3.4.2 Creating Consumer Experiences ................................................ 66 3.4.3 Extraordinary Experiences ......................................................... 71 3.5 The Dining Experience .................................................................. 74 3.6 Authenticity ................................................................................... 77 3.7 Serious Leisure .............................................................................. 80 3.7.1 Six Characteristics of Serious Leisure ....................................... 81 3.7.2 Amateurs & Hobbyists............................................................... 83 3.8 The Six Characteristics in detail .................................................... 84 3.8.1 Perseverance ............................................................................... 84 3.8.2 The Leisure Career ..................................................................... 85 3.8.3 Significant Personal Effort ......................................................... 86 3.8.4 Durable Outcomes ...................................................................... 87 3.8.5 Unique Ethos .............................................................................. 88 3.8.6 Group Identity ............................................................................ 88 3.9 Developing a Serious Leisure Identity .......................................... 89 3.10 Theories of Identity ........................................................................ 90 3.10.1 The Self-image Conception of Identity ..................................... 91 3.10.2 Mead’s Concept of “I” and “Me”. ............................................. 94 3.10.3 Identity Theory versus Social identity Theory ......................... 95 3.10.4 The Social Identity Perspective ................................................ 96 3.10.5 Reflexive Identities .................................................................. 101 3.11 Identity and the Internet ............................................................. 104 3.11.1 Use of Pseudonyms ................................................................. 105 3.11.2 Ethnic Identities ....................................................................... 106 3.11.3 Inherited Nostalgia .................................................................. 108 3.12 The Food Blog and Community Conceptual Framework ............ 110 3.13 Chapter Summary......................................................................... 111 4. Methodology ...................................................................................... 113 4.1 Introduction .....................................................................................