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Blogs are recognised by professionals and consumers as significant drivers for communicating and accessing information. With time, the food industry has adjusted to modern technology. By engaging with food consumption trends on the canvas of the Internet, this paper explores the characteristics of popular Romanian food blogs in terms of creating affective connections amongst consumers and spaces, fields, and plates. A content analysis approach was applied to find the characteristics of popular Romanian eating blogs. A snowball sampling approach was used to find food blogs through search engines including Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Three criteria were considered when selecting blogs: a clear purpose stated in the ‘About me’ section, the communication of eating and recipe information in a practical manner, and the number of page views. Five popular blogs were followed over three months (December 2021–February 2022). The characteristics of these blogs were examined, and the findings suggested that the bloggers focus on relationships, identifying with a community, belonging to a particular geographical space and cultural region. They introduce themselves as being passionate about food, interacting and giving feedback to their followers. In addition, their local native geographical region or a particular place played the role of sign vehicles to shape impression management. The food blogs provide various contents, including ‘foodie’ topics, images and photographs, personal experiences, and short life stories. Results of text analysis reveal the ways in which ‘passion for food’ is contextualised.
Dumitrache et al. (Sun,) studied this question.