Social Media as an Arena for Public Participation? : an investigation of food issues as presented through the Food Portal

Abstract

In this thesis, food matters, as communicated through the Food Portal are investigated. The Food Portal is an information portal about food and health for consumers by government agencies in Norway. Employing tools from Science and Technology Studies (STS), specifically Actor-Network Theory (ANT), and work drawing on conceptions of the displacement of politics, an investigation is conducted of how food issues are articulated and the role that the public plays within this context. Of particular importance is the way in which issues come to be, through texts, in the context of official documents, the online portal, and through the social media platforms Facebook and Twitter. Furthermore, it is found that the way in which content is articulated can have an effect on the ways that the public engages, or rather does not engage with the information. This paper finds its point of departure in the investigation of social media platforms building upon work within STS regarding the use and role of online technologies in issue politics.