The Language of Digital Food Discourse: A Study of Audience Responses in Social Media

While the power of comments in social media to build community and shape markets is widely acknowledged, their specific linguistic characteristics that enable this power, particularly within the domain of food discourse, are poorly understood. This study investigates the audience responses in culinary posts on social media, moving beyond thematic description to analyze the linguistic construction of evaluation. Employing a qualitative problem-driven content analysis with Appraisal Theory framework, 2,170 comments from 256 reels and captions of five prominent food-promoting accounts were analyzed in terms of their sentiment and specific resources of attitude. The results show the dominant positive comments (60.9% positive, 7.7% negative, 26.3% neutral, and 5.1% irrelevant). The appraisal analysis reveals that the positive and negative comments are built through a combination of affect (emotional expressions regarding the food, prices, and place), appreciation, particularly valuation (evaluations of quality, composition, worth of food, and dining experience), and judgement, particularly the social esteem (assessment of service). The linguistic mechanism of positive comments, manifesting as taste/price endorsements or tagging others, constitute unpaid brand amplification, transforming users into marketing actors. It can also strengthen community bonds. Negative responses, primarily citing unmet expectations regarding taste, portion size, pricing, and reservation issues, highlight gaps between marketing and real experience and function as a form of persuasive public warning. Neutral and irrelevant comments highlight the functional platform use, establishing the space as practical, public-source forum for customer decision making. This study indicates that user responses on these platforms are rich and strategic with community and market influence.