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Add Rhetoric and Stir: A Critical Analysis of Food Blogs as Contested Domestic Space

Presswood, Alane L.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1493814707254158

Abstract Details

2017, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, Communication Studies (Communication).
In this dissertation, I examined how the capabilities of networked digital platforms enable and constrain women as public communicators. Specifically, I studied how female food bloggers can selectively embrace or reject norms of domesticity in order to further their brand and increase their digital sphere of influence (and what influence those tactics have on their audience). After a critical textual analysis of 15 women-authored food blogs and a representative subset of in-depth qualitative interviews, informed by both traditional rhetorical and mass media theories, this project aims to emphasize and strengthen the connections between traditional rhetorical studies and the burgeoning field of social media studies. Three major findings emerged during the course of this research. I discovered that bloggers use the structural capacities of their websites (including hyperlinks and site archives) to create a similar guided reading experience for a variety of visitors; the capabilities of these digital rhetorical platforms alter the processes of rhetoric, particularly invention, arrangement, and Kairos. Bloggers also express some tension between their roles as self-employed businesswomen and the public perception of women who spend the majority of their time in a home kitchen. Finally, I end this study with an exploration on how bloggers use their websites to rhetorically provoke a parasocial relationship with their readers.
Christina Beck, PhD (Advisor)
Stephanie Tikkanen, PhD (Committee Member)
Michael Butterworth, PhD (Committee Member)
Julie White, PhD (Committee Member)
252 p.
Communication; Gender; Rhetoric; Womens Studies
digital rhetoric; domesticity; food blogs; gender studies; women; rhetoric; food studies; social media; blogs

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Presswood, A. L. (2017). Add Rhetoric and Stir: A Critical Analysis of Food Blogs as Contested Domestic Space [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1493814707254158

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Presswood, Alane. Add Rhetoric and Stir: A Critical Analysis of Food Blogs as Contested Domestic Space. 2017. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1493814707254158.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Presswood, Alane. "Add Rhetoric and Stir: A Critical Analysis of Food Blogs as Contested Domestic Space." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1493814707254158

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ohiou1493814707254158
663
© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.