Karen Davis, PhD,
UPC
United Poultry Concerns
December 2017
Even when horrific animal suffering is being recounted, the tone of certain “esteemed” columnists toward the animals is often disengaged, even cavalier on occasion. An attitude is wrapped around and inserted into the information that diminishes it, distancing people from the animals and encouraging public passivism and ethical inertia.
Photo by Frank Johnston, The Washington Post
“At least consider the sad life history of Sunday dinner before tucking in.”“At least consider the sad life history of Sunday dinner before tucking in.”
Many people consider any media coverage of nonhuman animals to be better
than none. This is debatable. A close reading of media coverage often
discloses both subtle and unsubtle strategies for disengaging people from
the animals and the reality of their lives and situations.
Even when horrific animal suffering is being recounted, the tone of certain
“esteemed” columnists toward the animals is often disengaged, even cavalier
on occasion. An attitude is wrapped around and inserted into the information
that diminishes it, distancing people from the animals and encouraging
public passivism and ethical inertia.
I wrote the following article for a book being published in 2018.
Towards Trans-Species Social Justice, edited by Atsuko Matsuoka and
John Sorenson, is a Critical Animal Studies anthology published by Rowland
Littlefield International.
I hope my discussion of disengaged journalism, focusing on the journalistic treatment of farmed animals, particularly birds, in both broadcast and print media, will be of interest to everyone committed to justice and respect for our fellow creatures.
Our animal victims, in spite of “progress,” continue to be patronized and diminished in much media coverage, to which our own manner of advocating for animals and conversing with journalists does, on occasion, contribute.
I am grateful to the editors for allowing me to publish my article in advance of its appearance in Towards Trans-Species Social Justice.
– Karen Davis
Read
THE DISENGAGEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC DISCOURSE ABOUT NONHUMAN
ANIMALS: AN ANALYSIS [PDF]
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