Digital Campaign: Innovation, sustainability, labour retention in Western Australian inshore fisheries - National video stories investment
Media messages about sustainable seafood: how do media influencers affect consumer attitudes?
From television cooking shows to social media, an intensified media focus on food has increased public visibility of issues of food provenance and sustainability in recent years. This has profoundly changed the communications landscape in which Australian food industries operate. There is now increased scrutiny and criticism of food industry activities not just from the ‘usual suspects’ (such as environmental activists), but also from a range of new players: celebrity chefs, food bloggers, social media ‘clicktivists’, and other media influencers. On the issue of sustainable seafood, these influencers have often been successful in securing a greater share of media ‘voice’ than industry itself. This is concerning because influencers’ messages are not always aligned with industry claims or with Government sustainability assessments. We know from international research that food celebrities and food media can either encourage or deter seafood consumption depending on the message (Bowman & Stewart 2013), but we don’t yet know what the impact is of Australian media, and media influencers, on consumer purchasing intentions, their attitudes and beliefs regarding the sustainability of Australian seafood, and the social acceptability of the industry. Aligning with National Priority 1 and its focus on industry communications strategy, this project will examine media coverage of Australian domestic fisheries sectors to identify: the messages about sustainable seafood prominent in Australian media; the media influencers, strategies, and professional networks underpinning their circulation; and how these messages are understood and interpreted by consumers. This knowledge will be used to inform communication strategies that will ensure clearer sustainability messages, reduce consumer confusion, and improve consumer trust in the Australian seafood industry.
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Project products
Seafood Directions 2017
World Fisheries Congress 2020 - Sharing our Oceans and Rivers: a 2020 vision for the world’s fisheries
Fish and Chips Awards 2021
Throughout 2017-2019 FRDC established the Fish and Chip awards as a way to create debate around seafood, raise its profile and use this as a vehicle to promote information about sustainability, fisheries management and the R&D being undertaken to underpin it. The approach worked very well generating more than 90,000 votes, hundreds of media articles and millions of consumer views of that media coverage.
There is a need to ensure the base developed in the first three years is not lost and that SIA continues to build on it and centralise consumer-facing activities under the industry’s brand, Great Australian Seafood.
SIA will continue to deliver retailers, consumers and media information on the sustainability of Australian seafood, underutilised species, FishNames, CoOL, along with any other relevant R&D and extension.
In this initial year of SIA management, we will investigate the opportunities for sponsorship of the program and develop a timeline for a self-sustaining model.
There is also a need for SIA to demonstrate how an activity such as foodservice and consumer awards can deliver tangible results. To do this, SIA is looking to capture consumer opinion, engage retailers and measure behaviour.
Final report
Fisheries Research and Development Corporation had run the Fish and Chip Awards since 2017. In 2021 the awards were transferred to Seafood Industry Australia (SIA) to run under the industry’s consumer-facing brand Great Australian Seafood and renamed the Great Australian Fish and Chip Awards.
This report provides an overview of the transfer of the awards to SIA and delivery of the Great Australian Fish and Chip Awards in 2021 and 2022.