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Qian Li
Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Xiao He
Capital University of Physical Education and Sports, China
Yangqin Liu
Hongkong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
(Correspondence: qianli11@asu.edu)
Citation: Li, Q., He, X., & Liu, Y. (2025). Eating with the Eyes: Developing a Sensory–Authenticity–Compensation Framework of Mukbang Viewing. JoCTEC, 7(3), pp. 30-50. DOI: doi.org/10.51548/joctec.7.3.2025.02
Abstract: Mukbang, or online eating shows, have become a popular digital media practice that merges food, body, and mediated reality. Drawing on 15 in-depth interviews with Chinese mukbang viewers, this study explores how audiences experience the pleasures and tensions of virtual eating. The analysis develops a sensory-authenticity-compensation (SAC) framework. First, viewers derive sensory gratification not only from the visual allure of food but also from bodily performance and auditory cues. Second, authenticity is judged less by factual eating behavior than by immersive and affective resonance. Third, mukbang serves as a compensatory practice that helps audiences regulate appetite, cope with loneliness, and symbolically substitute for eating. By integrating these dimensions, the SAC framework extends uses and gratifications theory to account for embodied, affective, and compensatory dynamics in technology-mediated food consumption. The findings highlight how digital media practices reconfigure eating into a mediated experience that resonates with broader social and psychological needs.
Keywords: Mukbang, sensory experience, authenticity, uses and gratifications, digital media practices