Episode 12: Animals in the Media

Most of us grew up watching Disney movies featuring lots of animal characters. But what is problematic about the way Disney portrays animals? How did the portrayal of animals change over time? And why is Remi from Ratatouille so much better than Mickey Mouse? In this episode, media scientist Maarten Reesink answers these questions and tells us about the history of human-animal studies. In this episode, we explore how animals are portrayed in audio-visual media, like the Tulkun in Avatar 2, cat videos on Instagram, or happy cows in dairy commercials. Timestamps: 0:00 - What are human-animal studies? 6:10 - A brief history of animals in media 19:20 - How are animals portrayed? 25:00 - Animals: bad guys or victims? 35:50 - How should animals be portrayed? 43:36 - Case study: Avatar 50:35 - Farmed animals in film 1:09:30 - Animals in ads 1:21:30 - Maarten’s favorite movie