Impact of Food Blogs on The Readers

Blogs, since its rise in 2002 have steadily been developing and have become a source of information on any subject. Blogs have now changed our perception about the world around us. Food blogging is an emerging subject matter in blogs. The views of the food bloggers for a particular dish or a cuisine have tapped into a great marketing opportunity. It attracts people more and more towards the place which serves the same kind of food or cuisine. Individuals have found a new outlet to share their ideas and thoughts and get feedback. The positive part in blogging to reach out to people is that it has the chance of being heard, unlike the mainstream media. Food blogs are very much different from a food website. A food blog is made my an individual who is interested in cooking or trying out new dishes either by cooking it himself/herself or visiting those places which have a different and unique variety of food. Food blogs have a vast impact on people, for example, when an individual wants to know about a dish or a recipe or a cuisine, s/he gets the major help from blogging. Blogs give information about a particular dish in every minute detail possible-the flaws, the taste, each and every ingredient and one of the major attractive parts are the pictures. The feedback is another important aspect as readers love to know about different variety cuisines, cook them and try them out after which they give feedback through their comments on the particular food blog.


Introduction to the Topic
Blogs, since its rise in 2002 have steadily been developing and have become a source of information on any subject. Blogs have now changed our perception about the world around us. Food blogging is an emerging subject matter in blogs. The views of the food bloggers for a particular dish or a cuisine have tapped into a great marketing opportunity. It attracts people more and more towards the place which serves the same kind of food or cuisine. Individuals have found a new outlet to share their ideas and thoughts and get feedback. The positive part in blogging to reach out to people is that it has the chance of being heard, unlike the mainstream media. Food blogs are very much different from a food website. A food blog is made my an individual who is interested in cooking or trying out new dishes either by cooking it himself/herself or visiting those places which have a different and unique variety of food. Food blogs have a vast impact on people, for example, when an individual wants to know about a dish or a recipe or a cuisine, s/he gets the major help from blogging. Blogs give information about a particular dish in every minute detail possible-the flaws, the taste, each and every ingredient and one of the major attractive parts are the pictures. The feedback is another important aspect as readers love to know about different variety cuisines, cook them and try them out after which they give feedback through their comments on the particular food blog.
The mass impact of blogs is without any doubt developed by the millions of blogs that are published every day. Blogs have been successful in redefining the 'current' and 'updated'.

Review of Literature
The internet has become the bread and butter of individuals and has become an integral part of a person's life, irrespective of the day, time and hour of its use. It serves as a crucial mode of communicating with different groups or individuals in cyber space. One of the essential modes of communication are blogs. Over the years, blogs have gained a tremendous growth with respect to its usefulness, enjoyment, readership etc. It is viewed as a form of information system that allows for accumulation of information. The research paper delves into the aspect of social influence that attempts to captivate an individual's intentions of using blogs. To understand the concept of blogs, one needs to be synonymous with the terminologies such as Information System, Information Quality, System Quality, Blogging Function Quality and more importantly Social Influence. According to a study on the interaction in two German food blogs, released in Boston University [1,2], it is proved that food blogs have evolved into a valid medium from where an individual creates an identity and interacts with others through their food and the internet. Though both of the blogs are different, they still have one common thing that is shaping and sharing their identities online with others who love to read about their food and lifestyles. According to a survey conducted by 'The State of Food Blogging' by Foodista et al. [3] adventures that are the organizers of the International Food Blogger Conference, the food blogging world is not made up of youngsters, only 11% of respondents were aged 24 and younger. 45% of respondents had no background related to food blogging and the rest 55% claimed to have some related professional experience-writing or editing, marketing, and food or food service. 89% of food bloggers cover the recipe as a favoured topic.

Methodology
The researcher is going to take up a qualitative approach to begin with the process of the research study. The researcher is going to analyse top five Indian Food blogs according to the average of 'facebook' likes and 'twitter' followers. To have a clean and a significant analysis, the researcher would interact with the common man in order to know about how frequently one uses a blog or writes one. Few individuals love to learn new recipes and try different cuisines from food blogs, the researcher would go ahead in interacting them about their feedback and comments on the blogs. The researcher would also analyse the pictures in each blog according to each food item or recipe as well as the positive and negative comments by the readers who give feedback.

Analysis
Based on the average of Facebook likes and Twitter followers, the top 5 Indian food blogs are analysed on the basis of pictures and comments in each blog for the recent recipes posted by the respective bloggers: November 2012-January 2013.
The blogs are arranged in the order of the highest -lowest average of the facebook likes and twitter follower: • With an average of 371195-aayisrecipes.com by Shilpa, et al.
• With an average of 19846-chefinyou.com by Dhivya, et al. [5] also known as DK, a great blog to know and learn many Indian and world vegetarian recipes and vegan recipes.
• Sailus food.com [6] has an average of 8534-she focuses on Andhra and Indian cuisine and the same time on baking as well.
• With an average of 7440-kirantarun.com [7] this blog has lifestyle, photography and amazing food section.
• Eggless cooking.com by Madhuram, et al. [8] with an average of 2935 is at 5 th . This blog is all about eggless baking recipes ( Figure 1 and Table 1).
According to the analysis done by the researcher, it was found that the readers prefer reading and following Indian dishes. The pictures are taken majorly in a step-by-step manner. The highest numbers of comments have been recorded for the 'kirantarun.com-unique food section' for the food item-Kumquat and Almond cake. This blog does not have step-by-step pictures of the process of cooking but has a defined picture of the garnished dish. The readers have given major positive comments and as well as asked for advices in reference to cooking. The analysis shows that the readers follow the respective blogs intently as they ask for suggestions and when they get a reply from the blogger, they reply back again. The recipes are easy and the way it has been written and explained with photographs with each and every step of the cooking makes them more accessible.

Conclusion
According to the above mentioned analysis, the researcher has found out that impact of the readers is highly influenced by the photographs and the precise description with regards to the flow of the process of cooking. The feedback is found to be majorly positive and suggestive. There are few negative feedbacks. The trend of 'Food Blogging' thus influences the readers in a positive manner, giving them the opportunity to experiment with new recipes. This indeed reinforces bloggers to continue with food blogging in order to attract more readers thus making it a two-way interaction, benefiting both the parties.    www.sailusfood.com-Andhra and Indian cuisine.
Only two pictures of the food item. Close-up of the final dish.
There are few comments regarding the pictures of the dish but not the recipe as such.
One picture of the final cooked dish. Four positive comments.