Citizens on Social Networking: Mukbang

‘Similar to other social media, the overall dynamics of online social networks can be tied to centrifugal forces of globalization that gradually bridging cultural divides’

(Kurylo and Dumova, 2016). As the product of globalization itself, people use social media for various reasons. For instance, social media has opened up space to talk about food. Food-related posts are one of the top topics on network platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Pinterest. The infamous saying among millenials

‘you can learn anything from YouTube’ is proven by many videos that feature content such as cooking, eating, and culinary travel with large amounts of viewers from various demographics.

Mukbang is a new trend in food media (De Solier, 2018). ​Mukbang is a combination of two terms, namely ​muok-da ‘eat’ and ​song ‘broadcast’, therefore, defined

7 K-Food Song, retrieved from

http://www.hansik.org/en/article.do?cmd=html&menu=PEN5060000&lang=en

8​KFPI Video Clips. Retrieved from

http://www.hansik.org/en/board.do?cmd=view&bbs_id=036&menu=pen5050000&art_id=46747&lang=en

as an activity that showing a person or a group of people (called broadcast jockey or BJ) broadcast their ​eating activity in an online video, sometimes including the process of cooking and storytelling. It is one of the special platforms that have content on activities related only to food and eating. ​Mukbang initially became popular in South Korea in 2009 and 2010. Many of those who owned a channel on AfreecaTV (Korean equivalent of YouTube) broadcast their eating activities and interacted with viewers who visit their channels. ​Nowadays, Mukbang has become a global trend in social networking platforms.

The reason for its popularity relies on many factors, one of which is that mukbang helps to boost appetite or make people feel full after watching. Also, for some people who dislike eating alone can have virtual eating buddies when watching Mukbang (De Solier, 2018). BJs can earn some profits through their own mukbang channels on social networking based on how many people watch their videos. BJ Diva, for instance, earns

$9,300 a month from her channel (Putri, 2018). Moreover, mukbang is a promising career for a BJ is because it provides sponsorships, commercialization, and self-branding (Kim, 2018). As a growing food trend worldwide, mukbang ​content can be found in almost all types of social networking sites with BJs that not only come from Korea or Koreans but also from many different countries. They eat various kinds of food from their country or others.

Figure 7. Mukbang BJ ‘Diva’ eating samgyupsal (pork belly wraps) (left) and Josh ‘Korean Englishman’ introducing Korean makgeolli (Korean rice wine) and jeon (Korean Pancake) to Ryan Reynolds (Hollywood actor who plays the Marvel character

Deadpool) (right).

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‘As YouTube began to become active around the world, many Korean food (Mukbang) channels were exposed, and not only various Korean food but also Korean food trends such as ​Honbab (Solo eating) and ​Honsul (Solo drinking) are becoming popular among foreigners’ (Our Home Marketing Promoter). A Youtube channel called

‘Korean Englishman’ is one of the most famous channels that introduces Korean cultural contents such as food (mukbang), travelling, and interviews through their weekly online videos. The channel also introduces Hansik to many famous foreign celebrities such as Ryan Reynolds, Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Hemsworth, and Tom Hiddleston. On other occasions, the hosts also collaborate with Korean celebrities to teach them about Hansik.

Regarding cultural purposes, Josh Carrot, the host of the channel, argues that it is easier to introduce Korean culture through food, mentioning that ‘I didn’t intend on creating ‘meokbang’ (eating show) videos. The original intention was to introduce Korea’s culture. The easiest way to learn a culture is through the foods. Introducing a dish to a friend who has never tasted it before, I just naturally eat enthusiastically’ (Ibid, 2019). Mukbang content helps to boost the number of viewers on their videos. While doing Mukbang, Josh and his partner Ollie are not only showing their reactions after tasting the food but also sharing the knowledge about the food, such as the ingredients, the making process, the history, as well as the manners to eat it.

Regarding internet media, Trottier and Fuchs (2014) argue that three social information processes constitute three forms of sociality: cognition, communication, and cooperation. Based on these notions, ‘individuals have certain cognitive features that they use to interact with others so that shared spaces of interaction are created. In some cases, these spaces are used to just for communication but also for the coproduction of novel qualities of overall social systems and for community building’ (Ibid).

Although restaurants are material culinary contact zones, mukbang videos can be regarded as virtual culinary contact zones. Food as the subject of knowledge in this type

behaviors by transmitting the information or knowledge that it represents. The knowledge that mukbang videos offer are the advertisement or introduction of food through visual presentation and cultural aspects by eating the food and through interaction between viewers and BJs. With Mukbang content such as Korean Englishman videos, the use of opinion leaders such as the aforementioned famous celebrities are useful for enhancing the brand of Korean cuisine among the viewers. In addition, Mukbang plays a role in promoting product brands. For instance, ‘with the expansion of ‘Mukbang’ program of Korea, products such as Samyang Spicy Noodles ( 불닭볶음면 ​Buldak boggeum-myeo​n ) are becoming popular among overseas fans’ (Our Home Marketing Promoter).

In the realm of gastrodiplomacy, this phenomenon can be associated with what Paul Rockower called ‘paradiplomacy’ or ‘people-to-people gastrodiplomacy.’ This kind of diplomatic practice can be beneficial in the process of spreading awareness of a country. For instance, the name ‘mukbang’ is self-explanatory and actually attracts recognition from its audiences. This could have effects of increasing the awareness of foreign publics toward mukbang’s origins.

‘It is clear that Mukbang is now popular around the world. Influential media such as CNN in the US and the BBC in the UK have introduced Mukbang. It can potentially contribute to raising the awareness of Korean food’ (PR Team of KFPI).

This is indicative of how growing public trends on internet media such as Mukbang can be a beneficial and advantageous strategy to make Hansik popular. For future strategies, ‘it will be necessary to review Korean food through YouTube and BJ’

(PR Team of KFPI).

However, mukbang has drawn concern of making a trend of eating a lot of food in one sitting. This is because Mukbang is also perceived as a promoter of binge eating on social media. Korean TV programs such as ‘Delicious Guys’ and Mukbang programs in internet media show the BJs picking the food they want to eat and typically in an

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enormous quantity. The government is actually concerned with how mukbang might increase the obesity rate within Korea and render a bad influence of South Korea’s name outside the country. In fact, the obesity rate in South Korea increased from 26% in 1998 to 31.7% in 2017 and 34.8% in 2016 (Park, 2018). Therefore, starting in 2019, the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to develop guidelines and create a monitoring systems for media that encourage binge eating, such as TV programs or internet media, to improve eating behaviour (Park, 2018).

Figure 8. Poster of Delicious Guys (맛있는 녀석들, ​Mas-issneun Nyeoseogdeu​l) and its cast members

This initiative received many negative responses from the BJs and even politicians to the extent that they called it ‘communistic’ because it was perceived as an act of the government intervening in people’s eating preferences (Chu, 2018). Moreover, they argue that mukbang can be helpful for individuals based on their perspectives. For some people, mukbang can help them pass feelings of hunger when dieting because they feel full after watching. For others, Mukbang can help those who have eating disorders to boost the appetite of its viewers. Furthermore, some argue that mukbang is a ‘new Hallyu​’ ​that should be supported by the government because it contributes to promote Korean food and expand its market abroad (Ibid).

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Nonetheless, this initiative has also gained some support from people and health studies. A mother living in Seoul was worried about her son’s health caused by eating behaviour after following the overeating mukbang trends and wished for a solution (Park, 2018). The negative side of such internet content has also been proven by research. Liverpool and Cancer Research UK, for instance, has proven that an advertisements for content such as mukbang encourage people to consume more unhealthy food (Chu, 2018).