My Big Fat Food Media Diet

Adam Yee, host of My Food Job Rocks! podcast

In my latest episode I talked to Rachel Cheatham, the CEO of FoodScape Group.  We talked about consuming media and I asked her the question: what’s your media diet?

She listed off the regulars, media that made sense such as the Food Politics Blog with Marion Nestle, and Center for Science of Public Interest, American Science of Nutrition you know, the standard stuff.

However, she did surprise me with naming some popular health and business related articles such as Fast Company and Business Insider.

All in all, everyone consumes media and the type of media we consume can be good for us, or bad for us.

Just like food, you can eat good media that can make your mind think more creatively, or dangerously poisonous media that will cloud your mind and make you think crazy things.

I decided to evaluate my own type of media and I split it up into about 3 parts. Media for work related inspiration, media for not-work related projects and social media. Within these topics, I’d like to share what type of podcasts I like listening to, and maybe this will give inspiration on what I find to be inspiration on my ability to produce good media.

Media for Work

I don’t like to subscribe to very many types of media so I keep my plate small. All I can say is that the one media source that always pops up is food-navigator. Not only do they constantly churn out amazing content, but they sometime host awesome webinars that allow companies to share their knowledge. One example is the snacking innovation summit launched maybe a month ago where they round up about 5-6 companies and go on things such as the newest trends or how companies got big.

Another media source I love is Food Dive (I recently found out my work email has been blocking them). Though they don’t give as many special services like webinars, they give quick, user-friendly information where I can quickly scan and recognize.

My company gets free subscriptions from IFT and Natural products Insider. I like magazines as content, don’t get me wrong, but it can be a slow source now because of the ever rapid internet articles. I use magazines less and less for work just because of the time commitment it takes to extract information. It’s a shame. I really love magazines as an idea but I just can’t find the time to read them and get information that I find valuable quicker than the internet.

Media for Fun

Let’s start with podcasts because I do a podcast. I listen to the following regularly: James Altucher (his articles are also very amazing. They give really practical advice some times), Tim Ferriss (he has good guests) Stuff you Should Know (great food topics and the hosts have great chemistry). I wish I could listen to more. Some I listen to irregularly is the Altonbrowncast, the $100 MBA, the Accidental Creative and Hard Core History. I would love to know more great podcasts, especially great interview podcasts. I take a lot of question-asking advice from the podcasts I listen to!

In terms of outside media, I find Eater and Foodbeast popping up on my news feed and they have good, clickbaity articles. I also subscribe and follow a lot of media on Arizona and I find it very interesting to know what’s going on in the food and entertainment scene in Arizona. There’s some pretty cool stuff.

Social Media

The dreaded social media is probably the worst type of media you can consume but as a 25 year old, I can’t help myself. I have found social media to be addictive and it’s hard to stop since it’s everywhere.

In any case, I use Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube regularly. I quit snapchat cause it drained my phone battery and Instagram is an indulgence.

Overall, my favourite social media platform is LinkedIn because I can actually treat it as an amazing source to find food media. Not only that, but it’s my main channel when it comes to the podcast.

Facebook is for recreational media and most of my food trends and Arizona events come from there. I also like cute baby animal videos and dank memes. I’m only human. On YouTube, I waste the most of my time watching garbage.

Overall, if you want to be really up to date, structure your LinkedIn feed to include articles about your field of interest. What is awesome is that this is so easy to do if you have a niche network. Luckily for me, the podcast allows me to connect with food professionals who talk about interesting articles and I can just pick it up form there.

If you do utilize LinkedIn as your network, you have to treat it as a grocery store. There’s bad food at a grocery store, but also really good food! So as long as you make the right choices, you can choose the good sources, or the bad sources about why you’re so smart for solving this dumb equation. But sometimes, you can indulge yourself with a donut sometimes.

Author: Adam Yee, friend and regular FoodGrads contributor!

What are your favourites?  Do you have a great Food or Beverage media source we should know about?  Please leave your comments below.

Related: How to Job Search Using Social Media.