The online personal networks of food-bloggers: the rise of amateur professionalism in times of economic crisis

Journal title SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Author/s Cecilia Manzo, Ivana Pais, Riccardo De Vita
Publishing Year 2013 Issue 2013/131
Language Italian Pages 17 P. 120-136 File size 803 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2013-131008
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The spread of social media is creating new reputational mechanisms, even in professional environments. This paper focuses on "food-bloggers", professional amateurs that act on the border between hobby and profession through an intentional investment on reputation. The main question here is relative to the potential use of this reputation within the same environment in which has been built, through the creation of new professions based on the Web, or exported in more traditional offline sectors. This research highlights an important difference between the popularity and the reputation of an actor. The paper also devotes a section to the study, through Social Network Analysis, of the personal networks of the most popular Italian food-bloggers on Twitter and Facebook. Different social structures emerge, at all levels examined. This paper is part of a larger project that will deal with the most highly reputed actors, and it will be replicated among different professional groups.

Keywords: Foodblogger, reputation, personal networks, social media, pro-am, professional groups

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Cecilia Manzo, Ivana Pais, Riccardo De Vita, Reti personali e reputazione online ai tempi della crisi economica: il caso dei foodblogger in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 131/2013, pp 120-136, DOI: 10.3280/SL2013-131008