Animals are everywhere. They inhabit our forests, our fields, our imaginations, our dreams, and our stories. Making appearances in advertisements, television programs, movies, books, Internet memes, and art, symbolic animals do tremendous work for us selling goods, services, and ideas, as well as acting as stand-ins for our interests and ideas. Yet, does knowing animals only symbolically impact their lived experiences? Seeing Species: Re-presentations of Animals in Media & Popular Culture examines the use of animals in media, tracking species from appearances in rock art and picture books to contemporary portrayals in television programs and movies. Primary questions explored include: Where does thinking of other beings in a detached, impersonal, and objectified way come from? Do the mass media contribute to this distancing? When did humans first think about animals as other others? Main themes include examining the persistence of the human-animal divide, parallels in the treatment of otherized human beings and animals, and the role of media in either liberating or limiting real animals.

List of Illustrations - List of Tables - Preface - Acknowledgements - Section 1: Foundations - Introduction - Animal Media Studies - Children and Animals - Re-presenting Animals in Popular Culture - Section 2: Case Studies - Knuffle Bunnies and Devoted Ducklings: The Formation of Gender Identity in Picture Books - Polarizing Bears: The Semiotic Disconnect - The Plight of the Prairie Dog - Catty: The Feral Feminine in Media - Nevermore: Ravens in Game of Thrones - Fables and Foibles as Global Economic Concepts: Animals on the Covers of The Economist - Index.