From beasts to furry children: Boundary-marking narratives and emotionalization in the animal representation of taiwanese journalism
Journal
Mass Communication Research
Journal Volume
2017-October
Journal Issue
133
Date Issued
2017-10-01
Author(s)
Abstract
This article explores the representation of animal issues in Taiwanese newspaper. By investigating the effects of boundary-making and emotional politics of the narratives, the authors aim to grasp the evolvement of the narrative strategies of animal issues. The research mainly looks at local journalism from 1950 to 2014, in which the alteration of the use of words and topics related to animals are displayed, and selects reports representative of such vicissitudes as subjects of narrative analysis. Our results show that the narrative strategy of the animal issues in newspapers gradually turned toward the invocation of more complicated emotions. Moreover, with the growing attention that Taiwanese society pays to animal issues, the emotionalized strategy of communication also stimulates the cohesion of public consensus on such issues. As substantiated by the industrial and epidemic domains of animal-related narratives, where the security of human society still surpasses the ethical care for animals, animals of discrete species provoke either anxiety or sympathy, thus manifesting a differentiated emotionalized tendency.
Subjects
Animal representation | Anthropomorphism | Emotional politics | Narrative | Othering
Type
journal article