To what extent should animal rights activists promote animal rights when attempting to persuade meat-lovers to stop eating animals?Contributing to a classic social movement framing debate, Freeman examines the animal rights movement's struggles over whether to construct farming campaign messages based more on utility (emphasizing animal welfare, farming reform and meat reduction, and human self-interest) or ideology (emphasizing animal rights and abolition of using animals as a means to an end). Freeman prioritizes the latter, "ideological authenticity," to promote a needed transformation in worldviews and human animal identity, not just behaviors. This would mean framing "go veg" messages not only around compassion, but also around principles of ecology, life, liberty, and justice, convincing people "it's not fair to farm anyone".Through a unique frame analysis of vegan campaign materials (from websites, to videos, to bumper stickers) at five prominent U.S. animal rights organizations, and insightful interviews with their leaders, including Ingrid Newkirk and Gene Baur, the book answers questions, such as:
- How is the movement defining core problems and solutions regarding animal farming and fishing?
- To which values are activists appealing?
- Why have movement leaders made these visual and rhetorical strategic choices - such as deciding between appealing to human self-interest, environmentalism, or altruism?
- To what extent is the animal rights movement actually challenging speciesist discrimination and the human/animal dualism?
Appealing to both scholars and activists,
Framing Farming distinctively offers practical strategic guidance while remaining grounded in animal ethics and communication theory. It not only describes what 21st century animal rights campaigns are communicating, it also prescribes recommendations for what they
should communicate to remain culturally resonant while promoting needed long-term social transformation away from using animals as resources.
This book is a
2016 National Indie Excellence book award finalist in the Social/Political Change category.Initial books printed in Amsterdam on recycled paper. See book website for excerpts, podcasts, resources, and lessons for veg activists at
FramingFarming.com.
Carrie P. Freeman, PhD is an Associate Professor of Communication at Georgia State University in Atlanta, teaching and researching media studies, including media ethics, strategic communication for social change, environmental communication, and critical animal studies. A vegan since the mid 1990's, she has been active in grassroots animal rights groups in the three states she has lived (Oregon, Florida, and Georgia) and now co-hosts an environmental protection radio show as well as an animal rights show on indie station WRFG-Atlanta (Radio Free Georgia). She co-authors an "Animals and Media" media styleguide website promoting respectful coverage of animals. Her work has been published in over 15 scholarly journals and books. "Framing Farming" is her first full length book.
