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Abstract
With the increasing industrialization of animal farming, the news media are an important source of knowledge about farmed animals for a largely urban public. This textual analysis of over 100 national news stories published between 2000-2003 in The New York Times, Time, CNN and CBS Evening News forms the foundation of scholarship on American news representations of farmed animals. Findings show news discourse largely supports the speciesist status quo by representing farmed animals primarily as resources for human use through commodifying them, failing to acknowledge their emotions and perspectives, and failing to describe them as inherently-valuable individuals. The media sometimes challenge the rules of discourse by showing that animals deserve to be rescued from cruel treatment, have emotional needs, make good companions, and should not be killed for food. Social change for animals is more likely if the media begin to construct stories which respect both human and animal interests.