| OVERVIEW
The Pastures Aren’t Green, and the Cows Aren’t Happy:
Using Communication Campaigns and Systems Thinking to Advance the Farm Animal Protection Movement
The extensive research study included a research paper, documentary photography based on human-centered design strategies, and an interactive infographic. The Communication Landscape infographic is a tool for animal protection organizations and advocates to best understand the intersections of the animal protection movement and animal agriculture industries and use the information to shape more effective communication strategies and campaigns.
role
Researcher
organization
date
category
PETA, American Humane
The Humane League,
Woodstock Farm Sanctuary,
Animal Legal Defense Fund,
& Faunalytics
Aug 2020 - Feb 2021
Qualitative Research, Human-Centered Design, Communications, Graphic Design, & Photography
| problem
In the United States alone, around 10 billion land animals are raised for food every year, and 99% of all animal products come from factory farms.
Though there has been a history of farm animal protection organizations advocating for better care for animals in these systems, the organizations and movement face limited resources and negative social stigmas fueled by falsified marketing strategies by the abundantly funded meat industry, who are also supported by the country’s legal structures and benefit from the lack of federal legal protections for farm animals.
| research MEthods
Through qualitative research, I explored the effectiveness of communication campaigns and persuasion strategies by farm animal protection organizations. The research focused on the communication challenges faced by farm animal protection organizations, the role of visual communication in influencing attitude and behavior change related to farm animal activism and consumption, as well as how marketing and communication can create a mainstream culture change toward farm animal protection and advocacy.
Of the 7 total interviewees, 5 were women and 2 men, the age range was 18-44, education ranged from Bachelor’s-Doctorate, and experience ranged from 1-10+ years. The positions represented included vice presidents and directors of communication, marketing coordinators, and communications managers. The interviewees represented PETA, The Humane League, Woodstock Sanctuary, American Humane, Animal Legal Defense Fund, and Faunalytics.
To obtain a detailed look at the communication landscape in the movement, qualitative interviews were conducted with marketing and communication experts in the farm animal protection field.
The interviews included 16 questions, such as:
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What factors are the most influential in the development of your communication campaigns?
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What role, if any, has documentary images or visual storytelling played in your organization’s communication campaigns?
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What role, if any, do the communication strategies or marketing activities of the meat industry play in influencing the development of your organization’s communication strategies?
As a secondary research approach, I created a documentary photography project, which included visiting small farms and sanctuaries in south Florida and learning from the farmers and caretakers to gather empathy as part of the human-centered design research model.
| findings
As a method to capture and analyze the interview research data from a systems-thinking standpoint, a social-ecological model was adapted to create a coherent mapping of the field and how communication campaigns and messages are created and delivered to the various targeted audiences.
A majority of participants directly or indirectly described the fields of industrial animal agriculture and animal protection as being composed of highly intersected and interdependent institutions, stakeholders, factors, and audiences.
Though modeling can be beneficial for presenting a clear picture of the complex landscape, it is important to know that a single model alone cannot capture the many facets in their entirety considering the disposition for secrecy and a generally high percentage of opacity that masks the field of animal agriculture.
| OUtput
I completed a research paper and designed an interactive landscape graphic to display the categories of the social-ecological model. The descriptions of channels, challenges and strengths, opportunities, and theories at each level can be used by farm animal protection organizations and individual advocates to better understand the complex communication landscape across the movement. The desired outcome is for the research and interactive infographic to be used as tools for animal protection organizations and advocates to best understand intersections of the animal protection movement and animal agriculture industries and use the information to shape more effective communication strategies and campaigns.
The images also provide an example of the visual storytelling approach that is found to be successful in gaining support for the animal protection movement.
What can ultimately be identified is that a systems-change approach must be used to create the most sustainable change and progress for the movement as a whole as work is done to dismantle the structures in our current society that cause and promote the abhorrent mistreatment of animals all for the purpose of monetary gain.
View the Communication Landscape HERE.
View the ebook version of Am I Commodity? HERE.
Fun Fact: My research was selected for presentation at the Florida Communications Association 2020 conference
