I am here today to talk to you about one of the world’s most misrepresented groups, Vegans. But before I introduce you to this, I would like to tell you a quick story. A couple of months ago, I saw an ad on TV about buying a Domino’s pizza online for five dollars. When I went to buy the pizza, the website convinced me to purchase 3 sides and a drink. I didn’t plan a buying these sides, but the marketing was so persuasive that I almost felt like I had to. (pause) I am certain that every single person has experienced some form of media manipulation in their life and this needs to change. The marginalization of vegans in the media ignores the fact that vegans are only trying to protect the environment and instead negatively portrays them with generalized and false statements. The media’s statements are incorrect and outrageous, and I can guarantee that when you leave today you will have a whole new view on veganism.
Ladies and gentlemen let’s be real. (pause) Practicing veganism undoubtedly results in benefits for the globe. It contributes to sustainability by not only protecting our environment but also saving a huge number of animals each year. Helena Horton, a well-known journalist recently wrote an article about Alicia Day, a vegan activist who rescued a pig from the slaughterhouse after coming to the realization that the treatment of animals is unfair and wrong. Now I’m sure many of you are thinking, “That’s ridiculous”, “why would anyone do that?”. (hand gestures) But the reality is that by going vegan, you can save up to 100 animals per year. Vegans' intention is simply to protect the environment and save animals, but the media constantly manipulates society to believe this is incorrect. In addition to this, the activist explains, “I can’t save them all, but I thought I would save one.” As soon as you start reading the article and see the word ‘slaughterhouse’ you are immediately engaged. Then when you start hearing quotes from the activist herself, you feel a sense of sympathy and appreciation for her actions. It might not seem like much, but all the small things count. Now, there is absolutely no reason to think of this to be anything other than thoughtful and sympathetic. It is very rare for the media to positively display veganism, but this article definitely does. (pause) However, even with the growing trend of veganism and the number of vegans in the world as of 2020 said to be nearly 75,300,000, there is still so much controversy in the media.
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The media has been marginalizing and isolating vegan figures for years. Let’s have a look at this political cartoon. (hand gestures) The author, Dan Piraro uses visual techniques to manipulate the audience into believing vegans are weak. Salience, vector, and gaze have been incorporated into this cartoon to marginalize the vegan figure. The salient feature is the 2 women positioned in the middle third of the cartoon. The effect of this corresponds with the use of vector as the speech bubble at the top draws our attention to the 2 women. Gaze has also been incorporated into this text to overpower the vegan and take away her voice and purpose. You can see that the other characters in the cartoon are staring at the vegan, not only manipulating but intimidating, isolating, and controlling her. Additionally, this newspaper headline, written just recently on January 15th also contributes to Othering in the media. CHEESED OFF Vegans are tired all day, spend hours planning meals, and don’t have a sense of humor. The author, Astrid Hall has incorporated the rule of 3 in this headline. However, her statements are not supported by any facts or evidence so how are we supposed to believe her? Vegans have been Othered in this article through the negative connotation of cheese. ‘Cheesed off’ is theoretically another way of saying ‘pissed off’. There is no relativity between personality and food, so this article is not reliable and accurate. The headline provides a generalized statement dealing with around 75 million vegans in the world. Out of these 75 million people, there is no evidence suggesting how many people are “tired all day”. Therefore, both these media texts considerably reflect inaccurate media stereotypes through the use of media manipulation.
When the word veganism gets heard, many things may come to mind. (pause) For the media, something that is very common is the misconception about vegan food being ‘boring’. Andy Singer, a well-known cartoonist created a cartoon titled “A Vegan Easter”. Othering in this cartoon is so manipulating, suggesting that vegans only eat tofu and have no variety in food. The use of the visual technique of symbolism illustrates the chocolate bunnies. This immediately lets the audience know that the cartoon is going to be about Easter before even reading the title. Also, with the chocolate bunnies, the text underneath reads “soymilk chocolate bunnies”. This confirms how misleading the cartoon is because veganism does not mean your food is boring. Especially with the rising number of vegans, there is so much variety in vegan food. (pause) This leads me to my next article, “Vegan Food Is Boring”. The fallacy states that “People will not become vegan because plant-based diets are boring, bland, and unappetizing.” However, the response states that many common day-to-day foods are already vegan. People in the media constantly come up with assumptions without even researching the truth. The common misrepresentation is that vegans only eat tofu and lettuce which is in fact extremely incorrect. Foods like bread, pasta, rice, fruit, veggies, and many more foods are already vegan. Another thought with this is that vegans only eat healthy food. However, there is already a huge number of unhealthy vegan products like vegan chocolate and lollies. (pause) So, I’m sure you can now realize how misleading and marginalizing the media is towards vegans.
Now that we know the truth about what the media really has to say about vegans, let’s do something about it. Who’s with me? Guys, it is your job to come up with a solution. If you’re sitting there wondering how you could possibly make a difference, don’t worry because I know exactly what you need to do. If you think about it, it really isn’t going to be hard to put a stop to these misrepresentations. Publishers in the media genuinely need to read and think before they publish something. They need to stop making assumptions and generalized statements with no evidence to support this. Let’s do it together, we know what we need to do. Now it’s time to do it!
Bibliography
- Griffin, A. (2018). 10 Common Misconceptions About Veganism It's Time To Root Out. Retrieved from https://www.theodysseyonline.com/misconceptions-about-veganism
- Hall, A. (2020). CHEESED OFF Vegans are tired all day, spend hours planning meals, and don’t have a sense of humor, a study on misconceptions reveals. Retrieved from https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10741692/vegan-misconceptions-tired-unfunny/
- Miller, S. (2017). Don’t let me be misunderstood: some common misconceptions about veganism. Retrieved from https://millergreen.co.uk/2017/10/dont-let-misunderstood-im-just-soul-whose-intentions-good/
- Telegraph Media Group. (2020). Vegan activists rescued pigs from the abattoir and fed animals on Wagamama. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/07/vegan-activist-rescued-pig-abbatoir-has-animal-taken-rspca-kept/
- The Vegan Society. (2020). Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.vegansociety.com/news/media/statistics
- Vegan Food Is Boring. (2020). Retrieved from https://yourveganfallacyis.com/en/vegan-food-is-boring/resources
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