A critical anthology on how humans treat other living beings and its impact on the media
Critical Animal and Media Studies , published by Routledge, of which Núria Almiron, lecturer at the Department of Communication, is co-editor and which paves the way for the launching of a new discipline in the academic field of media communication.
Critical Animal and Media Studies is a compilation of the work of sixteen authors recently published by Núria Almiron, a lecturer with the Department of Communication at UPF, a co-editor of the work together with professors Mathew Cole (Open University, UK) and Carrie P. Freeman (Georgia State University, USA).
This work contributes to the launching a new speciality that combines critical studies on animals and critical studies on communication with the aim of incorporating into communication studies the ethical perspective in the analysis of how humans treat other living beings with which we share the planet, “[treatment] that has deep moral, social and environmental consequences for humans ourselves, in addition, of course, to the other animals and the planet”, explains Núria Almiron.
The work is divided into three parts introduced in “The Convergence of Two Critical Approaches” by Núria Almiron and Mathew Cole, co-editors of the book, in which they mention the uniqueness of the work, since it is the first critical anthology of its kind.
An anthology that “is based on the conviction that the media have a key role in the anthropocentric construction of the social consensus that allows the exploitation of animals that do not belong to the human species –in the same way that the media have a key role in the construction of inequalities over and between humans”, added Almiron.
Critical Animal and Media Studies deals with this construction from the theoretical, philosophical, discursive, social and political-economic points of view. The work not only aims to contribute to the analysis of the coverage by the media of other animals but also establishes the ethical and theoretical fundaments that justify this new sub-discipline, and includes a final section with practical recommendations for teaching, research and a career in the field of responsible communication.
Reference work:
Almiron, N. Cole, M. & Freeman, C.P. (2016). Critical Animal and Media Studies Communication for Nonhuman Animal Advocacy. New York: Routledge.
Other related research e-news:
The role of media in the ethical debate on speciesism
Recent publications by the author:
- Almiron, N. & Khazaal, N. (2015). “Lobbying against compassion. Speciesist discourse in the vivisection industrial complex”. American Behavioral Scientist, DOI: 10.1177/0002764215613402.
- Almiron, N. & Zoppeddu, M. (2015). “Eating Meat and Climate Change: the media blind spot. A study of Spanish and Italian press coverage”. Environmental Communication. A Journal of Nature and Culture, 9(3): 307-325.