Food As Communication / Communication As Food

From high-tech kitchen gadgets and magazines to the Food Network, the last few decades have seen a huge rise in food-focused consumption, media, and culture. The discourses surrounding food range from media coverage of school lunchrooms and hunger issues, to news stories about urban gardening or buying organic products at the local farmers market. Food is no longer viewed merely as a means of survival.
International and comprehensive in approach, this volume is the first book-length study of food from a communication perspective. Scholars examine and explore this emerging field to provide definitive and foundational examples of how food operates as a system of communication, and how communication theory and practices can be understood by considering food in this way. In doing so, the book serves to inspire future dialogues on the subject due to its vast array of ideas about food and its relationship to our communication practices.

Janet M. Cramer, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Communication and Journalism Department at the University of New Mexico, where she teaches a variety of courses in media studies, journalism, and communication at the undergraduate and graduate level. Her research focuses on the cultural studies of media, including food, gender studies, and media history. She has written a history of media focusing on the cultural and intellectual traditions that have guided media development in the United States, titled Media/History/Society: A Cultural History of U.S. Media (2009).
Carlnita P. Greene, PhD, is an assistant professor and Director of the Communication & Rhetoric program at Nazareth College of Rochester. Her research can be broadly defined as the intersection of rhetorical theory and popular culture. She has previously published on subjects as diverse as food culture and the media, identity and social style, rhetorical theory in the twenty-first century, and popular culture and pedagogy.
Lynn M. Walters, M.S., is founder and Executive Director of Cooking with Kids, Inc., an award-winning non-profit organization that engages elementary school children in hands-on experience with fresh, affordable foods from diverse cultures. Her research interests focus on the behavioral effects of experiential learning with food; family, peer, and environmental influences on cooking and food choice; and the connections between pleasure and health.