Critical animal and media studies: Expanding the understanding of oppression in communication research

Abstract

Critical and communication studies have traditionally neglected the oppression conducted by humans towards other animals. However, our (mis)treatment of other animals is the result of public consent supported by a morally speciesist-anthropocentric system of values. Speciesism or anthroparchy, as much as any other mainstream ideologies, feed the media and at the same time are perpetuated by them. The goal of this paper is to remedy this neglect by introducing the subdiscipline of Critical Animal and Media Studies (CAMS). CAMS takes inspiration both from critical animal studies, which is so far the most consolidated critical field of research in the social sciences addressing our exploitation of other animals, and the normative-moral stance rooted in the cornerstones of traditional critical media studies. The authors argue that the CAMS approach is an unavoidable step forward for critical media and communication studies to engage with the expanded circle of concerns of contemporary ethical thinking. IntroductionTo set the stage for the intersection of 'animal' issues within the historically anthropocentric field of media and communication studies, we must consider that this field has been in a constant evolution since its birth in the first half of the 20 th Century, when scholars from the political sciences, psychology, and sociology first theorised the development of social communication models. From then on, the field has adapted to the changing cultural and technological environment that goes from mass communication to new media and social media. Regardless of the permanent shift in which the field is immersed, there is a shared belief that this area of research addresses both a 'societal' and a 'cultural' phenomenon since the media is part of the structure of society and at the same time the messages disseminated through its communication activities are an important aspect of culture (McQuail, 2010: 80). This field covers a wide number of disciplines (including journalism, advertising, public relations, film studies, telecommunications, ICTs, social psychology, linguistics and semantics, amongst others) and has traditionally been aimed at the understanding of the production, processing and effects of 'the symbolic interaction process between human subjects' that are mediated by a communication technology' (Fuchs, 2011: 75). However, not all approaches to media and communication involve a critical stance, that is to say not all of them look analytically at the power relations involved in the processes of communication. The critical stance actually embodied a radical change in perspective after the earlier functionalist and administrative approaches. Critical communication and media studies are primarily characterized by a moral stance that focuses on the analysis of how communication and media contribute to domination and inequality in capitalistic societies. In such an approach, the Critical animal and media studies European Journal of Communication

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