Food and Social Media: You are What You Tweet

Often, what we have come to term ‘social media’ actually reveal themselves to be quite a- or even anti-social in fostering narcissism, alienation, competition and so on. With judiciousness and even-handedness, Signe Rousseau unpacks both the perils and promises of new communication forms of the digital age and insightfully impels us to look closely and critically at the ways food talk today mixes business and pleasure, health and excess, self-interestedness and community, all at once. Hers is a highly ethical call to be responsible about the quite consequential media in- and of- our lives.

This brief book illustrates how social media (Twitter, Facebook, and Yelp, among other sites) have strongly influenced food culture. Rousseau (Univ. of Cape Town, South Africa; Food Media, 2012) invites readers to participate in a multilayered discussion of a wide range of issues related to the topic. These include plagiarism and copyright/fair use issues, restaurant reviews and the ethics of reviewing food establishments, marketing ethics, research strategies to locate authoritative recipes, and health information. This discourse is an entertaining, accessible analysis of an ordinary occurrence: sharing food with others through cyberspace. It is an incredibly engaging, fast read for such a dense, well-researched text. Foodies and academics in many disciplines will appreciate this book; it is also suitable for general readers, students, and anyone in the restaurant/hospitality industries. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels of students, general readers, researchers/faculty, and professionals.