S8E4: Popular Media and Pests with Lu Liu, Debra Merskin, and Emily Major

In this episode we animals, power, and popular media. Emily Major, Debra Merskin, and Lu Liu help to think through how animals are manufactured as “pests” and “icons” in media and how those labels shape empathy, policy, and everyday cruelty towards animals. 

Date Recorded: 15 January 2025 

Featured: 

• Animals and Media
• Mass Media and Society edited by Debra Merskin 
• Seeing Species by Debra Merskin 
• Media, Minorities and Meaning by Debra Merskin 
• Communicating Nature by Julia B. Corbett. 
• Projecting on Predators by Debra Merskin
• Brushtail possums and species-inclusive social work in Aotearoa New Zealand by Emily Major 
• Slayers, rippers, and blitzes: dark humor and the justification of cruelty to possums in online media in New Zealand by Emily Major 
• Playful Killing: Animals and Socialist Childhood in 1950s People’s Republic of China by Lu Liu
• Animals in Media on The Animal Turn 
• Panda Politics by Rosemary-Claire Collard
• Animals and Tourism with Carol Kline and Jes Hooper on The Animal Turn 
• We Animals
• Sentie

A.P.P.L.E
Animals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.

Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Modern Language, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, School of Literature, Media, & Commun

Pollination Project
The Pollination Project empowers volunteers across by providing the funding they need.

iROAR Network
iROAR brings together podcasts that aim is to make the world a better place for animals.

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The Animal Turn is hosted and produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and is part of the iROAR Network. Learn more on our website.

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Join PhD Candidate Claudia Hirtenfelder as she learns about important concepts in Animal Studies. Season 1 focuses on Animals and the Law.

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