The Representation of Animals on Children'S Television

The representation of animals on British children's television was investigated by means of content analysis of 364 weekday programs, collected over a two-year period. Animals are a major subject area of children's TV, appearing at a very high rate in fictional and non-fictional programs alike. Two main themes concerning the portrayal of animals emerged. The first was a reinforcement of the notion of a phylogenetic hierarchy in animals' capacity to suffer. Cruelty to mammals was explicitly admonished, while fish and invertebrates were largely excluded from moral concern. The second was an apparent tendency to avoid discussion or depiction of the use of animals for meat. In fictional programs, farm animals tended to be used to portray neutral, minor characters. Mammal meat consumption was rarely shown, but when it was, its origins were either heavily disguised or exaggerated into a joke. These findings are interpreted as an expression of adult society's discomfort with the paradox of advocating kindness to animals (especially mammals) on one hand, but the acceptability of meat eating on the other.