“The Cage is Not Cruel” or “Animals are Tortured”: Dismantling and Comparing Speciesist Language in Mainstream and Animalist Media

Speciesism is the unjustified bias against someone because of their membership to a certain species. Cats and dogs, for example, are considered loveable, sentient creatures, while pigs and cows are considered commodities and food. Similarly, humans consider themselves above all other species. Research has shown that this unjustified bias comes to the fore in language, also referred to as speciesist language. Research also shows that capitalist industries downplay cruel actions towards animals behind (camouflaging) speciesist language and that mainstream news outlets in the US use language that maintain this status quo. However, not much research has focused on the UK and it remains unclear to what extent animalist media compares to mainstream media in terms of speciesist language. This study aims to compare the extent to which mainstream and animalist media in the UK reflect speciesist representation. To answer this research question, Critical Discourse Analysis was applied to 15...Show moreSpeciesism is the unjustified bias against someone because of their membership to a certain species. Cats and dogs, for example, are considered loveable, sentient creatures, while pigs and cows are considered commodities and food. Similarly, humans consider themselves above all other species. Research has shown that this unjustified bias comes to the fore in language, also referred to as speciesist language. Research also shows that capitalist industries downplay cruel actions towards animals behind (camouflaging) speciesist language and that mainstream news outlets in the US use language that maintain this status quo. However, not much research has focused on the UK and it remains unclear to what extent animalist media compares to mainstream media in terms of speciesist language. This study aims to compare the extent to which mainstream and animalist media in the UK reflect speciesist representation. To answer this research question, Critical Discourse Analysis was applied to 15 articles from a mainstream news outlet (The Guardian) and 15 articles from an animalist news outlet (Plant Based News). Findings demonstrate that there is evidence of speciesist language in both news outlets. Thus, while animalist media may be combatting speciesism, more speciesist language was found in animalist media than expected. However, Plant Based News uses speciesist language primarily when nonhumans are commodified, while The Guardian discursively portrays entire exploitative industries as humane and justified. Furthermore, results show that Plant Based News is bolder in challenging speciesism than The Guardian. Accordingly, this research indicates that mainstream news outlets such as The Guardian maintain the status quo, while there might be a positive connection between animalist media and a lower frequency of speciesist language and higher frequency of anti-speciesist language. Further research is needed to investigate this possible correlation.Show less

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“The Cage is Not Cruel” or “Animals are Tortured”: Dismantling and Comparing Speciesist Language in Mainstream and Animalist Media