Intimate consumptions : YouTube eating shows and the performance of informality

Title data

Rüdiger, Sofia:
Intimate consumptions : YouTube eating shows and the performance of informality.
In: Internet Pragmatics. Vol. 5 (2022) Issue 1 . - pp. 115-142.
ISSN 2542-386X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ip.00070.rud

Official URL:

Abstract in another language

In this paper, I investigate how the structure of and discursive performance on North American YouTube eating shows contribute to the creation of intimacy and informality. In a typical eating show, the performer eats copious amounts of food while talking to their non-copresent audience, making use of interactional registers to ‘break’ from the solitary setting and to build rapport with their viewers. The material for this study is based on two case studies drawn from a corpus of YouTube eating shows. At the heart of the eating show performances lies the persona of a ‘friend’ of the viewer, diverting from their highly structured and technologically-mediated communicative nature. While the language used on eating shows may thus seem spontaneous and unprompted, the videos are not only planned but also edited. The simultaneous presence of selected unedited moments (i.e., slips of the tongue and other mishaps), however, is evidence of a conscious blending of front- and backstage performance (Goffman 1959; Shulman 2017).

Further data

Item Type:	Article in a journal
Refereed:	Yes
Keywords:	(in)formality; performance; Mukbang; eating shows; front- and backstage; language and food; genre
Institutions of the University:	Faculties > Faculty of Languages and Literature Faculties > Faculty of Languages and Literature > Chair English Linguistics Faculties > Faculty of Languages and Literature > Chair English Linguistics > Chair English Linguistics - Univ.-Prof. Dr. Susanne Mühleisen Faculties
Result of work at the UBT:	Yes
DDC Subjects:	400 Language > 400 Language 400 Language > 410 Linguistics 400 Language > 420 English, Old English languages
Date Deposited:	01 Feb 2022 07:47
Last Modified:	01 Feb 2022 07:47
URI:	https://eref.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/68545