From the food critic to the Food Blogger: the communication of food is increasingly social
Once there was only careful and reliable gastronomic criticism, created by a few experts in the field, who tested dishes or restaurants, offering their extremely reliable opinion to the community of readers. Then came the web and, with him, new terms and professions: Food blogger, food journalist, food specialist, storyteller, up, even, a paparazzo of the dish e food porn.
In short, food has turned into food and has expanded its borders, becoming a topic that everyone is talking about, not just a few followers. An argument social to all effects, like politics and football, so to speak. The explosion of the figure of Food blogger, often able to influence people's consumption and the marketing strategies of companies, is the most obvious case. Fashion, of course, is born in the United States, in the 1997, with the blog Chow hound, while in Italy you have to wait for the 2005 to see the first pioneers of this new one be born food mania. According to estimates AIFB (Italian Food Blogger Association), in the Bel Paese there would be over 3 thousand Food blogger but it is practically impossible to give a real estimate. And if only a small percentage has become famous, turning a hobby into a trendy profession, the message that has been launched is as simple as it is revolutionary: we can all talk about food, we can all communicate it.
Following the Food blogger other fashions are born, like that of the foodies, the Food Porn, and of the so-called paparazzi of the dish, a term used by the French newspaper Le Monde has defined those who post, on their social profiles, the dishes they are about to consume. If even television has immediately embraced this new trend, giving birth to an infinite number of reality shows, also absolutely horizontal and social, and turning the figure of the Chef into a star of the show, it is easy to understand how the communication of food is increasingly heterogeneous, broad and complex. An audience of perpetually developing actors who, alongside the journalist and the expert in the field, work alongside the university, the photographer and the mother. A real revolution that opens the way to new ideas, interesting collaborations, brilliant strategies, but also, inevitably, to countless controversies.
