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"Animals are everywhere. They inhabit our forests, our fields, our imaginations, our dreams, and our stories. Making appearances in advertisements, television programs, movies, books, internet memes, and art, symbolic animals do tremendous work for us selling goods, services, ideas, and as stand-ins for our interests and ideas. Yet, does knowing animals only symbolically impact their lived experiences? This radical new approach examines the use of animals in media, tracking species from appearances in rock art, picture books to contemporary portrayals in television programs and movies. Primary questions explored include: Where does thinking of other beings in a detached, impersonal, objectified way come from? Do the mass media contribute to this distancing? When did humans first think about animals as other Others? Main themes include examining persistence of the human/animal divide, parallels in the treatment of Otherized human beings and animals, and role of media in either liberating or limiting real animals"-- Introduction -- Animal media studies -- Children and animals -- Representing animals in popular culture -- Knuffle bunnies and devoted ducklings: animals and gender identity in children's picture books -- Polarizing bears: the semiotic disconnect -- The plight of the prairie dog: nature Documentaries as entertainment -- Catty: the feral feminine in advertising -- Nevermore: ravens and crows in Game of thrones -- Bullish about business: visual animal metaphors in the Economist
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