Animals and Media

The Eighth Annual Oxford Animal Ethics Summer School on

Animals and the Media
Communicating Ethical Perspectives on Animals

Merton College, Oxford, 7-10th August, 2023

The media in all its forms (including, print, broadcast, social, cinematic, literary, and artistic) dominate our lives. Our Summer School will critically examine the role of the media in representing animals both positively and negatively. We shall also examine the ways in which the media represents the cause of animals and those individuals and societies who seek to protect them.

Among the questions we shall be asking are: What does or doesn’t attract the media to animal issues? How objective or accurate are their depictions? How can animal advocates effectively communicate positive ideas about animals? Does the media advance or hinder the protection of animals? What are the ethical issues associated, inter alia, with “wildlife photography” and the television portrayal of free living animals?

We invited academics worldwide, including historians, social scientists, artists, psychologists, professional communicators, theologians, philosophers, and lawyers, to present.

The call for papers and registration is now closed.

The final programme is available here.

Photos from the Summer School can be found here.