Pauline Melgoza, Pamela A. Mennel and Suzanne D. Gyeszly
Unlimited access to the Internet and the widespread availability of both full‐text electronic resources and printed materials in many academic libraries offer almost unrestricted…
Abstract
Unlimited access to the Internet and the widespread availability of both full‐text electronic resources and printed materials in many academic libraries offer almost unrestricted access to users for their research and curriculum needs. Yet the overwhelming availability and supply of information forces users to sort and filter through the wealth of information and sometimes make educated guesses regarding their validity and reliability. In order to determine user priorities and preferences for information resources and their selection criteria, questionnaires were distributed to faculty, graduate, and selected upper‐level undergraduate students of the Departments of Economics, Political Science, and the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. The survey results show that for scholarly research or serious curriculum needs the use of printed materials is still popular among faculty and graduate students, while undergraduates primarily prefer to use Internet services.
Details
Keywords
Nicklas Neuman, Lucas Gottzén and Christina Fjellström
The purpose of this paper is to explore how a group of men relate to food celebrities in the contemporary Swedish food-media landscape, especially celebrity chefs on TV.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how a group of men relate to food celebrities in the contemporary Swedish food-media landscape, especially celebrity chefs on TV.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 men in Sweden (22–88 years of age), with different backgrounds and with a variety of interest in food.
Findings
The paper demonstrates different ways in which the men relate to food celebrities. The men produce cultural distinctions of taste and symbolic boundaries, primarily related to gender and age, but also class. Through this, a specific position of “just right” emerged. This position is about aversion to excess, such as exaggerated gendered performances or pretentious forms of cooking. One individual plays a particularly central role in the stories: Actor and Celebrity Chef Per Morberg. He comes across as a complex cultural figure: a symbol of slobbish and tasteless cooking and a symbol of excess. At the same time, he is mentioned as the sole example of the exact opposite – as a celebrity chef who represents authenticity.
Practical implications
Scholars and policy makers must be careful of assuming culinary or social influence on consumers from food celebrities simply based on their media representations. As shown here and in similar studies, people relate to them and interpret their performances in a variety of ways.
Originality/value
This is one of the few studies that target the role of food celebrities in contemporary Western consumer culture from the point of view of the consumers rather than analyses of media representations.