Sustainability in Cooking Shows: A qualitative content analysis on framing of sustainability in the cooking show MasterChef Germany and MasterChef US

Abstract: Many environmental organisations are trying to counter the negative effects of climate change. The film- and television industry are increasingly becoming the focus of attention, because, although it repeatedly advocates sustainability, it often gets lost in its own productions. The presentation of sustainability is often not visible or clearly recognizable by the viewer. Cooking shows are often criticised by the public for being environmentally friendly in terms of food waste.The goal of this research is to determine how sustainability is presented in cooking shows in Germany and the USA. For this purpose, the following research question is asked: How is sustainability framed in the television cooking series MasterChef US and Germany? And is there a difference between those two countries?The theoretical framework is presented by the framing theory of Erving Goffmann (1974), with the use of this approach sustainability was framed in TV shows and used for the analysis and its results. To answer the research question, a qualitative content analysis was carried out, which analyses both the German and the American version of MasterChef in 2018/2019. The research was divided into indirect and direct events. The results of the study show that the German MasterChef included significantly more sustainable topics than the American one. This confirms that there is a significant difference in the cooking shows between the two countries.