Social Media: Blogs and Twitter

The early architecture of the World Wide Web (WWW—free to the public in 1993) tended to replicate the one-to-many traditional mass media model but with the difference that individuals were now able to produce and distribute information publically. In terms of food, this often took the form of lists (“my favorite cookbooks”) and critiques of restaurant meals. The major early WWW development for social media is blogs (from weblogs, a joining of web and log), which began in the 1990s.

Blogs allow writers to share unmediated thoughts on a website, and they allow readers the opportunity to post and interact with the writer and other posters. In addition to text, many blogs now include video blogs, self-shot videos about a food topic, and podcasts (a neologism joining Apple’s iPod mobile MP3 player and broadcasting), which are audio programs centered around a food topic.