I have decided that I want to analyze food in digital media. Specifically, I am interested in powerful forces in food media, such as social media accounts like Tasty and Delish, which have amassed tens of millions of followers. I am also interested in websites like allrecipes.com, specific food subreddits on Reddit, and the most popular food accounts on Instagram. I would like to analyze what type of content—gifs, recipes, videos, news—garners the most attention, the most reaction, and the most shares. I want to compare and contrast that popular content to see similarities that make for a viral food media post.

I hope to find information about the monetization of these resources in respected publications such as The New York Times, Business Insider, The Economist, Forbes, and other reputable publications that may have delved into the increasing trend of food on social media. How are these accounts being monetized? I may run into an issue in my research in the fact that I am researching social media accounts—this isn’t a usual project, and social media is a tough source to deal with. While content might be hosted on one page, it may have been provided by another user. Since this is a relatively new topic (food and social media), traditional and reliable research about this subject might be hard to come by.

By the end of this project, I will hope to have come up with a thesis that examines how food media can gain massive popularity. What does this media have in common with each other, and how might others emulate the same success with food in digital media?

                         My topic of choice is analyzing cookbooks through out time and looking at how gender roles have enforced through out cooking and the “feminine space” of the kitchen.  Can man provide food for his family and be manly? Is kitchen the woman’s domain? Is society to blame? Men and women have been forced into standardized roles based on their sex. As a society we have perceived masculine roles to be paired with dominance, aggression, and fear; while feminine roles are associated with passion, nurturing and caring. The placement of these categories start with us at birth, repetition of these created socialized gender roles over time leads men and women into a false sense that they are acting naturally, rather than following a socially constructed role. Society teaches us that gender roles are based on natural differences between the sexes, but on the stereotypes based on the patterns of men and women.  A pattern that cookbooks have helped enforced: the Virginia Housewife (1800s), The Sour Cream Queen(1950s), The Hostess cookbook (2000s). Each one of these books not only use their title, but the wording and some times the visual images are geared towards women.  I want to use cookbooks and their content to further enforce the idea of “socially” acceptable gender normative ideas.

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/menus/5-tips-for-throwing-a-1950s-dinner-party5.htm

http://www.cheftalk.com/t/6661/1950s-americas-popular-food-and-recipeshttp://hdmzweb.hu.mtu.edu/cookingbooks/?page_id=871

For my annotated bibliography, I have decided to research the business and marketing behind food. As a business student who is very interested in the food industry and product marketing, I was drawn to this topic and its diverse array of subtopics. My bibliography will be able to cover not just long-standing, international, global food companies, such as Pepsico, but also smaller-scale, recent developments, such as food trucks. Two opposite ends of the food business spectrum have completely different issues. For example, in a text that I have selected for my annotated bibliography, The Economist writes about major food companies’ responsibility to both shareholders to maximize earnings and also the public to make healthier products – especially for lower-income consumers; however, these two goals sometimes contradict each other so these major food companies must struggle to find a balance and expand their food empire. On the other hand, according to an article by CNBC, food trucks face issues on how to even start their empire. In recent years, a successful food truck can be the catalyst ofr a food empire; just ask Roy Choi, founder of Kogi Barbecue. Success to these food companies all depend on timing.

I am very excited to continue to explore the broad range of genres and purposes of food writing by researching food business and marketing. For example, I hope to find sample food product marketing plans or possibly relevant multimedia texts, such as the film Chef about a former professional chef who starts a food truck. My other future research plan is to contact my colleagues at food companies to conduct interviews to gather their firsthand experience and viewpoints in the American food industry. I also plan to expand my diverse authorial viewpoints beyond just global versus local food businesses. I also hope to explore multicultural food marketing, ethics behind targeting kids in food business, etc.

However, my research process has not gone without flaws. I have faced some minor complications in my research agenda when it comes to scope. I wonder if my topic could be too broad. Should I restrict my research agenda to only food marketing? Or should I focus on only one of the following: large food companies, restaurants, or local businesses? Or would limiting myself in such a manner take away the diverse authorial viewpoints within my topic? I would love to hear more from my peers on how I should narrow or maybe refine my topic, or perhaps if I should continue my research as is.

I have chosen the topic of coffee for my annotated bibliography.

There are so many directions I could go with that, so here are some that I’m considering:

• The history of coffee, when did people start drinking coffee? What has the evolution been (or bean – if you like puns (sorry))?
• The process of producing and distributing coffee.
• Slavery within the coffee industry, child labor and forced labor. What the effects of slavery are and why it is so prevalent.
• I might focus on one specific region where coffee is produced, but I’m not sure whether I’ll do that or generalize it.
• What Fair Trade is, what it means, what it does, a list of Fair Trade coffee companies

I’m interested to learn more about the process and cost of enjoying our cup(s) of coffee on the morning. I have seen some articles (but haven’t done a lot of research yet) on some of the drawbacks of Fair Trade, so I think that would be important to look into. Hopefully through this assignment I’ll be able to delve into different aspects of the coffee industry, but weave them together in a way that is informative and inspires change. Right now I think there will be complications with figuring out how narrow to go. Do I want to research a specific country? Do I want to focus on child labor? How much of the history do I want to go into/what all is relevant?

So that is the beginning of my coffee journey, more to come.

Some potential texts for my bibliography:

http://www.foodispower.org/coffee/ – briefly summarizes the slavery that goes on within the coffee industry and gives recommendations of Fair Trade coffee brands.

http://docplayer.net/24668517-Corporate-social-responsibility-review-risks-of-child-labor-on-select-coffee-farms-in-nicaragua.html – “Risks of Child Labor on Select Coffee Farms in Nicaragua

I chose Indian cuisine and culture for my research topic, especially about curry. I had several topics in my thought and finally chose this since I love curry and I have always wondered about the variety of curry. I saw many curry, in many different ways, in many countries. However, it is general to think that curry is from India so I chose Indian cuisine and curry. I will still have to narrow down the culture part, wether I will focus on just the curry culture or other Indian cultures too.

So far I found many sources related to my topic. I found difference between southern and northen cuisines of India and also what spices that goes in the curry that defines the taste. Also interesting argument that wether curry in from India or from England. And curry from different countries and their styles. I tried many different styles of curry so I can include my own experience when introducing the difference. I found many sources but most of them are from the internet. I will have to work on finding more hard copied books.

My research is going well so far, at least I chose the topic and working on finding more sources. I think I can make things more organised as I go on.

I chose Tex-Mex food and its role in Texan cuisine as my topic as I love the food and have a great appreciation for its origin in Texas. I am wanting to explore this topic from historical and geographical viewpoints. I think this is an important topic to write on since food is such a crucial aspect of any culture, and Texas certainly has its own unique culture to be explored. Tex-Mex is likely the most well-known cuisine in Texas aside from barbeque. I have had great success in finding detailed history about the origin of Tex-Mex and the history of Texas cuisine in general. It was difficult at first to find diverse sources on Tex-Mex itself, so I expanded my topic to include the role it plays in Texan cuisine as a whole. From a historical standpoint, I am looking into how the history between Mexico and Texas led to this food fusion and what Tex-Mex is today. I found a great article from the History Network about the creation of Tex-Mex. I also found information from the Texas State Historical Society on the research they have done on this distinct cuisine and its significance to Texas. I also have been researching and found information on the history of Texas cuisine in general as to add more context to my bibliography. Geographically, I am looking at how Tex-Mex differs across the state as Texas is large and has many different regions. I also want to explore the difference between Tex-Mex and traditional Mexican food. I found a great article in Texas Monthly that gives a crash course on what makes Tex-Mex different from traditional Mexican food.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/06/8-essential-tex-mex-dishes.html

http://www.history.com/news/hungry-history/tracing-the-history-of-tex-mex

http://texascultures.housing.utexas.edu/assets/pdfs/texas_cuisine.pdf

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lgtlt

My topic discusses how immigration into the United States, and the subsequent ‘foodways’ that came with it, affect  not only of food in the United States, but the overall culture as well. Foodways (as defined by this article) are the preferred foods and circumstances of eating of immigrant groups. Essentially I will be discussing how the food culture in America is shaped by the food cultures that have migrated here from around the world. This topic is especially important to me because both of my parents were immigrants to America and because of this, I grew up in a different culture than many of my American friends.

At this moment, I have tentatively selected Italian, Irish, and Jewish immigrants to focus on as examples. Should I change these or add any other immigrant groups? I found this excellent source written by Hasia R. Diner for all three of those immigrant groups together, as well as a handful more examples for each. However, I am still unsure if these are the immigrant groups that I want to focus on for my examples.

My idea at the moment is to discuss how each of these different groups affected the United States culture over time. I would like to have some sort of chronological organization to the annotated bibliography. However, as I delve farther into my research, I have started noticing that the timelines are not laying out as smoothly as I had hoped. I may have to switch up my plan and start organizing by group since the timelines tend to be spread out and overlap.

For my research topic, I have decided to research the popularity of coffee in America, especially focusing in on Starbucks. I am still narrowing down my topic, and deciding if I want to focus more in on the globalization of the business of Starbucks, or just talk about the rise of coffee in general in the USA and talk about Starbucks only in America. What do you think I should narrow it down with?

I chose this topic because coffee is a part of my every day routine–specifically Starbucks. I have a very specific iced coffee order and I always prefer coffee from Starbucks rather than a brunch place or any other coffee shop because I know when I order it will most likely taste the exact same as it does at my usual Starbucks.

So far I have found many sources- Starbucks.com, A blog post from New York Serious Eats, and looked at the differences between Starbucks Menus here in Austin. Because they have so many locations, I think that the topic of Starbucks just in American will be big enough, and I will probably not include the globalization aspect in my research project. I am looking into different youtube videos, but haven’t found which one I want to include in my final project yet.

I think that my research is going well, and I am excited to continue to narrow down my sources and pick the best ones to share with everyone.

For my annotated bibliography, I have decided to research the idea of “pizza variations around the world”. I believe this is a good topic because while this idea is is small compared to the grand scheme of pizza, I can still report on a large pool of information when I consider things like pizza toppings around the globe, the variations based on continent, how pizza is made, and its overall popularity as a dish in certain places. So far I have been exploring different mediums of research and will definitely be utilizing written text as well as multimedia reports on pizza.

In the written article, The Strangest Pizza Toppings Across The Globe, I have already discovered that crocodile and kangaroo meat are popular toppings in Australia, while China at large is a fan of hot dog crust. I am also looking forward to watching, Food Paradise International: Pizza Paradise, an episode from the Travel Channel, that includes information about pizza from London, Buenos Aires, South Africa and more. If anyone is curious about the pizza habits in a specific country or how certain toppings came to be, please let me know! I look forward to being able to relay this information to y’all.

The topic for my annotated bibliography is essentially “The evolution of food media and its relationship with the American household.”  While this is a very broad topic, I do plan to narrow in on specific sects of subjects as my research progresses. I am wanting to explore how food media has evolved throughout history, while also including a comparison with food radio, food television and finally food on social media.

While I first thought I would really focus a lot on food television, my research has brought me to find a lot of interesting articles about food on social media; continuing on, I want to develop more inquiries surrounding food on social media, including how review apps (such as Yelp), “foodies” on Instagram, and YouTube had changed America’s perception about food and the food eating/making experience. Already I have found several articles that show the impact some of these sites have had on the food industry, including “10 Years On: How Yelp Has Completely Transformed the Restaurant Industry” and “The Yelp Factor: Are Consumer Reviews Good for Business?”

While social media has opened a lot of new avenues for me to venture into, I also want to explore food television and its relationship with the American household, moreover how America had influenced and changed food television. While this subtopic will explore content on television, I also want to compare and contrast modern “food celebrities” with those from the beginning of food television and radio. From first glance it is clear that the content and personalities are vastly different between the era’s, but I want to see if there is a reason or speculation as to what has caused those changes. So far I have found several helpful sites that discuss this topic such as, “How food television is changing America” and  “The Evolution Of Food On TV.”

Overall my biggest complication is finding sources. While there are many articles I do have to sift through a lot of nonsense articles that don’t give much reasoning or behind their claims. Is there a better way to do this other than just using Google? Also, because of the nature of my topic and subsequent subtopics, I am just struggling to narrow everything down into a cohesive argument. Are there any topics that seem more interesting from a readers perspective? My bibliography is going to cover a lot and is hopefully going to show how why food media is not only popular, but has constantly stayed relevant while so many other genres have died out. This bibliography is not just about food making but also the role food has on society, and vice versa.