Browsing by Author "Totro, Ella"

The importance of food as a culinary experience, a form of leisure and a way of life is more significant today than ever. The casualization of food is partly the result of the mediatization and recreationalization of food. These developments can be seen to have accelerated when food content moved to television. Social media has expanded food media and culture to a new level, which has enabled the production of food content from different parties and the birth of new food-related phenomena. One example of new phenomena related to food and eating are mukbang eating videos from South Korea. Originally imitating collective dining, mukbang is a form of digital eating, where the person being filmed typically eats a large portion of food while conversing with their viewers. The purpose of this study was to investigate YouTube comments by analyzing the reasons for watching mukbang videos, i.e. why the videos are consumed. In addition, the research wanted to examine the social and cultural meanings viewers attach to food and eating. The thesis was carried out using qualitative research. The research method used was netnography, which is also called digital ethnography. In this study, the video platform YouTube served as the research field. The researcher first carried out observations in the field by getting to know the mukbang community, after which the research material was collected from the comment threads of six (n=6) different videos. The material was analyzed using theory-driven content analysis, and a total of 221 comments ended up in the final analysis. Based on the research, watching mukbang videos is activated by sensory pleasures, food inspiration and feeling connected to the mukbanger, i.e. the creator of the video. In addition, the result of the study can be considered the multi-layered nature of video consumption, as the comments could contain several reasons for watching. Of the meanings attached to food and eating, society's eating norms and staying within them, the idealization of food, and commensality, i.e. the meaning of eating together, came to the fore. This research helps to understand the meanings of the phenomena and communities created around food and the reasons for consuming food contents as the multi-meaning of food increases within people. In addition, the understanding of this research helps to promote the positive effects of food-related content such as mukbang, as well as to increase awareness and prevent harmful ones.