ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 investigates the socio-cultural connotations and pragmatic implications present in the food blogs as places of social interactions. In order to complete the investigation of food blogs as virtual communities, the chapter analyzes the ‘About Pages’, i.e. the pages where the food bloggers introduce themselves and their blog. The content of these pages is critically analyzed and contrasted to the visual characterization of the blog described in Chapter 3. Moreover, the chapter examines pragmatic aspects in the ‘Comments Sections’, where the food bloggers directly interact with their public. By means of Brown and Levinson’s (1987) theory of politeness, and face-threatening and face-saving acts, the users’ comments, and the bloggers’ responses, are examined to see how bloggers and users challenge or reaffirm their reciprocal sense of in-group identity as well as how they manage their roles of expert/leader and non-expert/member, respectively. Finally, Goffman’s (1959) theory of society as a stage is employed to assess if the visual characterization is consistent with the verbal description that the bloggers provide for themselves, thus if they manage to construct a consistent virtual persona throughout their blog.
