Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

“Commenting” on Animal Cruelty: A Content Analysis of Social Media Discourse on Animal Law Enforcement in Australia

“Commenting” on Animal Cruelty: A Content Analysis of Social Media Discourse on Animal Law... Animal welfare legislation in Australia is influenced by “community expectations.” Given a major source of publicly available information on animal welfare law is that from media articles, it is likely the information discussed online could be influencing public opinion and consequently shaping animal welfare legislation reform efforts. This study examined the social media discourse in response to news articles on animal welfare law in Australia. A content analysis was applied to Facebook comments from posts originating from a formal news agency discussing animal cruelty and penalties over a 6-month period between 1 June 2019 to 1 December 2019. All posts were screened against eligibility criteria and imported into NVivo for inductive coding. A total of 24 Facebook posts with an accumulative 1,723 comments were coded and thematically analyzed. Six primary themes were generated from the analysis: (1) failure of the court system; (2) failure of the legislation; (3) failure of the government; (4) emotive reactions; (5) risk of violence; and (6) mistrust in the media. The social media discourse was scathing of the legal system, with a particular focus on failings of the animal welfare law justice system. It is likely that this type of discourse surrounding animal law enforcement could be playing an influential role over the “expectations” influencing animal welfare legislation reform in Australia. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Anthrozoös Taylor & Francis

“Commenting” on Animal Cruelty: A Content Analysis of Social Media Discourse on Animal Law Enforcement in Australia

Morton, Rochelle; Ngai, Kendrew; Whittaker, Alexandra L.
Anthrozoös , Volume OnlineFirst: 18 – Mar 25, 2023
Download PDF
18 pages

“Commenting” on Animal Cruelty: A Content Analysis of Social Media Discourse on Animal Law Enforcement in Australia

Abstract

Animal welfare legislation in Australia is influenced by “community expectations.” Given a major source of publicly available information on animal welfare law is that from media articles, it is likely the information discussed online could be influencing public opinion and consequently shaping animal welfare legislation reform efforts. This study examined the social media discourse in response to news articles on animal welfare law in Australia. A content analysis was applied to...
Loading next page...
 
/lp/taylor-francis/commenting-on-animal-cruelty-a-content-analysis-of-social-media-8FxMAKFS9z
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2023 International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ)
ISSN
1753-0377
eISSN
0892-7936
DOI
10.1080/08927936.2023.2187137
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Animal welfare legislation in Australia is influenced by “community expectations.” Given a major source of publicly available information on animal welfare law is that from media articles, it is likely the information discussed online could be influencing public opinion and consequently shaping animal welfare legislation reform efforts. This study examined the social media discourse in response to news articles on animal welfare law in Australia. A content analysis was applied to Facebook comments from posts originating from a formal news agency discussing animal cruelty and penalties over a 6-month period between 1 June 2019 to 1 December 2019. All posts were screened against eligibility criteria and imported into NVivo for inductive coding. A total of 24 Facebook posts with an accumulative 1,723 comments were coded and thematically analyzed. Six primary themes were generated from the analysis: (1) failure of the court system; (2) failure of the legislation; (3) failure of the government; (4) emotive reactions; (5) risk of violence; and (6) mistrust in the media. The social media discourse was scathing of the legal system, with a particular focus on failings of the animal welfare law justice system. It is likely that this type of discourse surrounding animal law enforcement could be playing an influential role over the “expectations” influencing animal welfare legislation reform in Australia.

Journal

Anthrozoös – Taylor & Francis

Published: Mar 25, 2023

Keywords: Animal cruelty; animal welfare; human–animal interaction; law enforcement; penalties; social media

References

  • Human-to-animal similarity and participant mood influence punishment recommendations for animal abusers
  • Press reports of animal hoarding
  • The benefits of human–companion animal interaction: A review
  • Whose issue? Representations of human–elephant conflict in Indian and international media
  • Moral intensity and willingness to pay concerning farm animal welfare issues and the implications for agricultural policy
  • Understanding the role of representations of human–leopard conflict in Mumbai through media-content analysis
  • More than ten years after: The long-term stability of informed death penalty opinions
  • Dimensions of the human–animal bond and evacuation decisions among pet owners during Hurricane Ike
  • Intuitive jurisprudence: Early reasoning about the functions of punishment
  • Word of mouth communication within online communities: Conceptualizing the online social network
  • The end of framing as we know it … and the future of media effects
  • Nasty online comments anger you more than me, but nice ones make me as happy as you
  • Online social networks: Why do students use Facebook?
  • What drives consumers to spread electronic word of mouth in online consumer-opinion platforms
  • A scoping review of published research on the relinquishment of companion animals
  • Online and uncivil? Patterns and determinants of incivility in newspaper website comments
  • Empathy: A review of the concept
  • Public opinion about punishment and corrections
  • Is animal cruelty a “red flag” for family violence?
  • Public opinion and criminal justice reform: Framing matters
  • The purposes of legal punishment
  • Adulthood animal abuse among men arrested for domestic violence
  • Agenda setting through social media: The importance of incidental news exposure and social filtering in the digital era
  • Examining the links between animal abuse and human violence
  • Beyond public opinion polls: Punitive public sentiment and criminal justice policy
  • Companion animal cruelty and neglect in Queensland: Penalties, sentencing and “community expectations”
  • Community attitudes reflect reporting rates and prevalence of animal mistreatment
  • All the news that’s fit to post: A profile of news use on social networking sites
  • Capturing cruelty: A content analysis of companion animal cruelty in the news media
  • Social license and animal welfare: Developments from the past decade in Australia
  • Online information sharing about risks: The case of organic food
  • The effect of online social proof regarding organic food: Comments and likes on Facebook
  • A matter of judgement: The effect of information and deliberation on public attitudes to punishment
  • Telling stories about breastfeeding through Facebook: The impact of user-generated content (UGC) on pro-breastfeeding attitudes
  • Power of consumers using social media: Examining the influences of brand-related user-generated content on Facebook
  • YouTube as a research tool: Three approaches
  • Risk and benefit perceptions of human enhancement technologies: The effects of Facebook comments on the acceptance of nanodesigned food
  • What do others’ reactions to news on internet portal sites tell us? Effects of presentation format and readers’ need for cognition on reality perception
  • The effect of negative online consumer reviews on product attitude: An information processing view
  • Criminal histories of a subsample of animal cruelty offenders
  • Capturing the sustainability agenda: Organic foods and media discourses on food scares, environment, genetic engineering, and health
  • Communicating about animal research with the public
  • The link between animal abuse and child abuse
  • Interrater reliability: The kappa statistic
  • Selective exposure in the age of social media: Endorsements trump partisan source affiliation when selecting news online
  • Social and heuristic approaches to credibility evaluation online
  • An investigation into “community expectations” surrounding animal welfare law enforcement in Australia
  • Portraying animal cruelty: A thematic analysis of Australian news media reports on penalties for animal cruelty
  • Increasing maximum penalties for animal welfare offences in South Australia—Has it caused penal change?
  • Explaining the gap between the ambitious goals and practical reality of animal welfare law enforcement: A review of the enforcement gap in Australia
  • Australian and US news media portrayal of sharks and their conservation
  • Pets in danger: Exploring the link between domestic violence and animal abuse
  • Beyond the property debate: Animal welfare as a public good
  • Posting, commenting, and tagging: Effects of sharing news stories on Facebook
  • Animal welfare: At the interface between science and society
  • Exemplification 2.0: Roles of direct and indirect social information in conveying health messages through social network sites
  • Public (mis)understanding of crime policy: The effects of criminal justice experience and media reliance
  • Opinion dynamics on interacting networks: Media competition and social influence
  • Public opinion towards the lay magistracy and the sentencing council guidelines: The effects of information on attitudes
  • Framing the tiger: A biodiversity concern in national and international media reporting
  • International perceptions of animals and the importance of their welfare
  • Corporate criminals and punishment theory
  • Online trolling: The case of Madeleine McCann
  • Empathy and attitudes to animals
  • Lock ‘em up and throw away the key? Community opinions regarding current animal abuse penalties
  • Rehabilitation in a red state: Public support for correctional reform in Texas
  • Exploring attitudes toward animal welfare through the lens of subjectivity—An application of Q-methodology
  • European approaches to ensure good animal welfare
  • The relationship between domestic violence and animal abuse: An Australian study
  • The influence of online comments on perceptions of antimarijuana public service announcements on YouTube
  • Risk factors for intimate partner violence and associated injury among urban women
  • Thoughts on agenda setting, framing, and priming
  • Online blaming and intimate partner violence: A content analysis of social media comments
  • They came, they liked, they commented: Social influence on Facebook news channels
  • From animal cruelty to serial murder: Applying the graduation hypothesis
  • Empathy for animals: A review of the existing literature
  • Beyond bad: Punishment theory meets the problem of evil