Vol. 4 (2021): Semiotics of Digital Gastromania

Volume III–IV of Digital Age in Semiotics & Communication (2020/21) appears as a double issue: the COVID-19 pandemic brought academic activities to a halt and slowed the collection of materials, so the two annual volumes were combined. Titled Semiotics of Digital Gastromania and edited by Kristian Bankov and Francesco Mangiapane, it brings together nine articles on how digital media have made food and cooking one of the defining topics of contemporary culture. The contributions examine “veganism 2.0” and the forms of life promoted by its online communication, and the hashtag #foodporn as a fetishised sharing of food images. Another article analyses how food influencers build trust with their followers, while a study of the Italian Facebook group Cucinaremale explores “cacogastromania”, the playful sharing of everyday culinary disasters. Two papers offer systematic models for analysing food blogs and gastronomic programmes on Italian television. The volume also addresses the role of imagination in the evolution of taste, and food films as vehicles of national identity, nostalgia and emotion for foreign and domestic audiences. It closes beyond the strictly culinary, with an analysis of the augmented-reality app IKEA Place as an example of “virtual tryvertising”, an experiential marketing strategy for empowered customers.