The Use of Social Media for Food Activism in Turkey - The Case of Gidadedekti̇fi̇ (Food Detective)

Abstract

The study examines the example of ‘Gıdadedektifi’ to understand how the food movements in Turkey use social media as a field of struggle. Gıdadedektifi’s digital food activism experience was evaluated through content analysis of 1070 tweets and 229 Instagram posts shared on Twitter and Instagram during 2021. Content analysis indicates that Gıdadedektifi is sharing extensively on label analysis of packaged products, legislation and food safety; and uses most the hashtags #neyediğinizibilin (knowwhatyoueat) and #neiçtiğinizibilin (knowhatyoudrink). In this direction, it can be said that the initiative is trying to create an agenda/public opinion on label literacy and food safety. The accounts to which the initiative directs its claims/demands mainly consist of public institutions/officers. Campaigns were made to assure policy change by mentioning those public actors in 6.5% of the posts on Instagram and 28.5% on Twitter. However, the participation and interaction rates of Gıdadedektifi’s accounts are not very high. In addition, the low number of posts about the positive achievements of the campaigns in the sample suggests that the contribution of the initiative to policy making is limited. The fact that Gıdadedektifi is occasionally getting paid to review products also necessitates questioning the relations between activism and consumption. The review of the one-year activity of Gıdadedektifi shows that social media is an effective tool, at least in creating a food agenda in Turkey. However, the analysis indicates that the potential of networking of this tool has not been sufficiently exploited.