1st Edition
Critical Animal and Media Studies Communication for Nonhuman Animal Advocacy
This book aims to put the speciesism debate and the treatment of non-human animals on the agenda of critical media studies and to put media studies on the agenda of animal ethics researchers. Contributors examine the convergence of media and animal ethics from theoretical, philosophical, discursive, social constructionist, and political economic perspectives. The book is divided into three sections: foundations, representation, and responsibility, outlining the different disciplinary approaches’ application to media studies and covering how non-human animals, and the relationship between humans and non-humans, are represented by the mass media, concluding with suggestions for how the media, as a major producer of cultural norms and values related to non-human animals and how we treat them, might improve such representations.
Introduction. The Convergence of Two Critical Approaches Núria Almiron, Matthew Cole, and Carrie P. Freeman Part 1: Foundations 1. Media Theories and the Crossroads of Critical Animal and Media Studies Debra Merskin 2. The Political Economy behind the Oppression of other Animals: Interest and Influence Núria Almiron 3. Suffering is Not Enough: Media Depictions of Violence to other Animals and Social Change Nik Taylor 4. Consumer Vision: Speciesism, Misogyny, and Media Carol J. Adams 5. Origins of Oppression, Speciesist Ideology, and the Mass Media David A. Nibert Part 2: Representation 6. Mixed Messages: Opinion Pieces by Representatives of US Nonhuman-Advocacy Organizations Joan Dunayer 7. Getting (Green) Beef: Anti-Vegan Rhetoric and the Legitimizing of Eco-Friendly Oppression Matthew Cole 8. The Creation of a Killer Species: Cultural Rupture in Representations of ‘Urban Foxes’ in UK Newspapers Kate Stewart and Matthew Cole 9. (Black) Man v. Cheetah: Perpetuations and Transformations of the Rhetoric of Racism Emily Plec 10. Looking at Humans Looking at Animals Randy Malamud 11. This Little Piggy Went to Press: The American News Media’s Construction of Animals in Agriculture Carrie P. Freeman 12. Puppy Love? Animal Companions in the Media Erika Cudworth and Tracey Jensen Part 3: Responsibility 13. Respectful Representation: An Animal Issues Style Guide for All Media Practitioners Carrie P. Freeman and Debra Merskin 14. Media Activism and Animal Advocacy: What’s Film Got to Do with It? Loredana Loy 15. Adidas’s Black Market Goes to Court: Media and Animal Advocacy Lawsuits Jerold D. Friedman 16. Tears, Connections, Action! Teaching Critical Animal and Media Studies Tobias Linné Conclusion Carrie. P. Freeman
Biography
Núria Almiron is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
Matthew Cole is Associate Lecturer in the Faculty of Social Science at The Open University, UK
Carrie P. Freeman is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Georgia State University, USA
"This edited international collection makes an original contribution to the fields of critical animal studies and critical media studies. The converging of these two critical fields provides a particularly interesting interdisciplinary approach to the ethical consideration of our treatment of nonhuman animals through the lens of media studies and the political economy of communication."
- Kay Peggs, University of Portsmouth, UK
"This volume is a positive step in bringing attention to media culpability in violence, and responsibility to advocate on behalf of those who can neither speak nor control their images or portrayals, who lack lawyers to sue for slander or libel, much less for being cruelly mistreated then butchered. (...) This important and searing collection of essays provides a rationale for reflecting on animals by anyone whose work or community engagement involves media."
- Ellen W. Gorsevski, Bowling Green State University, USA for Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
