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Animals
Special Issues
Animals, Media, and Re-presentation
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Animals, Media, and Re-presentation

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Welfare".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 September 2024 | Viewed by 4172

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Debra Merskin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1275, USA
Interests: animals; media; language; stereotypes

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The ways media and popular culture re-present animals impacts their lives as well as ours. Limited and limiting portrayals stereotype species so that audiences who have never met a particular animal in person tend to rely upon what they see and hear, thus cultivating one-dimensional understandings of them. Sometimes these are artificially positive re-presentations, such as of polar bears (cute, cuddly, Coca-Cola spokesanimals). Others are negative (wolves, sharks, insects). What audiences take away from these symbolic encounters impacts animal lives. This special issue invites interrogations of media and popular culture stories, past and present, that analyze words or images (discourse) according to a strong theoretical foundation, and speak to ways that, moving forward, media can more accurately and respectfully offer ideas of animals that benefit all beings.

We invite original research that identifies stereotypes of animals other than humans in media and popular culture and connects these portrayals with the lived experiences of a particular species. Topics can include portrayals in news media, film, internet, books, or objects. All research methods are welcome and can include discourse analysis (visual/verbal), qualitative, quantitative, historical, or semiotics or others.

This Special Issue will focus on species whose popular image has been shaped by portrayals.

Prof. Dr. Debra Merskin
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • animals
  • media
  • popular culture
  • portrayals
  • representation
  • stereotypes
  • intersectionality

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 762 KiB  
Article
Zoofolkloristics: Imagination as a Critical Component
by Teya Brooks Pribac and Marjetka Golež Kaučič
Animals 2024, 14(6), 928; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ani14060928 - 17 Mar 2024
Viewed by 943
Abstract
Nonhuman animal protagonists of folklore texts in the European space have tended to be perceived primarily as performing a symbolic and metaphoric function. But behind the symbols and the metaphors hide real flesh-and-blood nonhuman animals, and flesh-and-blood humans interacting with them, mostly from [...] Read more.
Nonhuman animal protagonists of folklore texts in the European space have tended to be perceived primarily as performing a symbolic and metaphoric function. But behind the symbols and the metaphors hide real flesh-and-blood nonhuman animals, and flesh-and-blood humans interacting with them, mostly from a position of power. The emerging discipline of zoofolkloristics considers nonhuman animals in their own right. Through critical analysis of folklore material, zoofolkloristics examines the role of animals and power relations within the interspecies entanglement with the aim of deconstructing the oppressive system and establishing multispecies justice. We begin this paper with a brief reflection on the ‘historical animal’ as an embodied being and a human construct. We then perform a critical re-reading of three animal-related folklore texts from the Slovenian tradition and, applying Hubert Zapf’s concept of imaginative counter-discourse, consider the potential of imagination as a methodological tool in the transformative program of zoofolkloristics. Implications for animal ethics, liberation, and conservation are also discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Animals, Media, and Re-presentation)
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15 pages, 885 KiB  
Article
Can Gender Nouns Influence the Stereotypes of Animals?
by Joao Neves, Inês Costa, Joao Oliveira, Bruno Silva and Joana Maia
Animals 2023, 13(16), 2604; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ani13162604 - 12 Aug 2023
Viewed by 1491
Abstract
Educating about animals in zoos and aquariums poses daily challenges for education teams, who must not only master biological content but also possess communication skills to adapt information for diverse ages and cultures. This research consists of two sequential studies designed to investigate [...] Read more.
Educating about animals in zoos and aquariums poses daily challenges for education teams, who must not only master biological content but also possess communication skills to adapt information for diverse ages and cultures. This research consists of two sequential studies designed to investigate the impact of grammatical genders on animal stereotypes and elicited emotions. In Study 1, four animals were independently chosen based on a set of predefined conditions, which were then used in Study 2. The second study explored whether the presence of grammatical genders in the Portuguese language influenced the perceived stereotypes of four animals (panda bear, giraffe, polar bear, and cheetah) using the Stereotype Content Model framework. For comparison, English-speaking participants were also surveyed, as English lacks grammatical genders. The results demonstrated that grammatical genders influenced the perceived gender, as well as, although only slightly, the warmth, competence, and elicited emotions of some animals. All animals under study were associated with the protective stereotype, regardless of the presence of grammatical gender. This study emphasizes the significance of subtle yet crucial elements in communication, such as grammatical genders, in shaping stereotypes and innate emotional associations concerning animals. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Animals, Media, and Re-presentation)
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