Algorithmic Taste: Localization, Regional Gastronomic Representation, and Soft Power of Thai Food Content on TikTok

Abstract

Food is playing an important role within modern cultural diplomacy amongst various countries and generally lacks any theoretical basis or support in the way that many algorithms allow food to be viewed and represented on different platforms. This study aims to investigate how Thai culinary culture is represented and localized, as well as how it is impacted by algorithms on TikTok. The method of this investigation is the use of mixed-method content analysis of 87 short-form TikTok videos taken from the official Tasteful Thailand account, which is a documentary produced for the Government Public Relations Department of Thailand. Qualitative content analysis identified six recurring textual themes: ingredient as cultural signifier, narrative voice strategies, pop culture anchoring, destination bundling, the luxury–local tension, and structural representational gaps. Quantitative analysis conducted in SPSS Statistics revealed an uneven regional distribution (Southern and Central regions dominate at 27.6% and 26.4%, while Northern Thailand is markedly underrepresented at 6.9%), a predominantly low-intervention adaptation strategy, and a non-significant relationship between cultural framing and engagement. The only significant predictor of engagement was narrative strategy: pure visual videos significantly outperformed those retaining the original documentary narration on both shares and comments. The convergence of qualitative and quantitative evidence reveals a structural tension between institutional soft power messaging and platform-native viral logic. The study contributes to digital gastrodiplomacy scholarship by demonstrating that engagement metrics cannot be treated as proxies for cultural reception, and by identifying two distinct paths to algorithmic visibility on short-form video platforms.