Discursive coalitions, lobbies and the media: critical analysis of contemporary discourses on animals and compassion
We are pleased to announce the launch of a new call for papers for a special issue of Ámbitos. Revista Internacional de Comunicación, entitled “Discursive Coalitions, Lobbies, and Media: A Critical Analysis of Contemporary Discourses on Animals and Compassion”.
This issue invites critical reflection on how media, political, and corporate discourses shape the relationship between humans and animals, as well as contemporary forms of compassion, ethical consumption, and animal activism.
The special issue will be coordinated by Olatz Aranceta-Reboredo (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Dr. Estela Díaz Carmona (Universidad Pontificia Comillas), and Dr. Loredana Loy (University of Miami).
The submission period will be open from March 1 to March 31, 2026, through the Open Journal System (OJS)available on the journal’s website. This special issue will be published as Issue 69 of Ámbitos, scheduled for October 2026.
We invite researchers to submit contributions that, from diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives, analyze media, political, and corporate discourses related to animals, compassion, and the power coalitions that sustain or challenge them.
Approach
This monograph adopts an interdisciplinary approach that combines communication studies and multimodal discourse analysis. The collection of articles seeks to unravel the processes of discursive and contemporary construction around the use of non-human animals, exploring how various actors—from lobbies to social movements—appeal to different argumentative frameworks to legitimize or question exploitative practices, as well as to curb compassion or proactive empathy towards non-human animals.
The works included in the issue address this topic from a variety of methodological perspectives. Some offer theoretical approaches focused on communication linked to animal use industries, their lobbies, and the discursive coalitions that emerge, while others present empirical case studies on representations in contexts such as documentaries, education, the market, or the press.
The common thread running through the issue is the relationship between media discourses and communication strategies, with a particular emphasis on the role of narratives as tools of legitimization, exclusion, or resistance within processes of social change. Ultimately, this monograph seeks to contribute to a critical reflection on the discourses that shape our relationship with non-human animals.
Keywords
Narratives of social change; media representation of activism; lobbies and interest groups; strategic and educational communication; multimodal discourse analysis.
Axis 1: Discourses on the use and exploitation of animals
This axis brings together contributions that analyse how discourses that legitimise, invisibilise or question the use of animals in different cultures and media contexts are constructed and disseminated. It explores representations of animal suffering, the use of tradition as justification, and the Western perspective in media coverage of non-Western practices.
Guiding questions:
- How are animals and their use represented in the media and popular culture?
- What discourses reinforce or challenge the social legitimacy of animal exploitation?
Axis 2: Representations of activism and strategic communication in the defence of animals
This second block focuses on how animal activism is represented socially and in the media, and on what communication and educational strategies can contribute to ethical transformation.
Guiding questions:
- How is animal advocacy activism represented in the press? What effects can this coverage have on its legitimacy or social perception?
- What communication and educational approaches help to foster greater ethical awareness and compassion towards animals?
Coordinators
Olatz Aranceta-Reboredo
Pompeu Fabra University
Project manager at COMPASS, with a pre-doctoral FPI contract in the Department of Communication at Pompeu Fabra University. Olatz is a member of the UNIC-CritiCC research group and the scientific committee of the UPF-Centre for Animal Ethics, as well as part of the PESTS project research team. They graduated in English Studies from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and have a master's degree in Media, Power and Diversity (UPF). Their areas of interest include critical animal studies, interest groups and the representation of non-human animals in the media. They are currently working on their doctoral thesis entitled: ‘COMPASSION IN (S)PAIN: How Interest Group's Discourse Contributes to the Perpetuation of Animal Captivity and Exhibition’, and have published a dozen articles in scientific journals and book chapters in indexed publishers.
Email: olatz.aranceta@upf.edu
Dra. Estela Díaz Carmona
Comillas Pontifical University
Senior lecturer and researcher in the Department of Business Management at Comillas Pontifical University. She coordinates the ANIMA research group: Critical Multispecies Studies, is a member of the advisory board of the UPF-Centre for Animal Ethics and is part of the research team for the COMPASS and PESTS projects. Her research falls within the field of critical animal studies, analysing how forms of (non)exploitation of non-human animals are communicated, represented and legitimised in different social and media contexts. Within this framework, she pays particular attention to the animal rights movement, ethical consumption and the discourses that shape our relationship with animals.
She has presented her work at numerous conferences and seminars and has published in high-impact journals such as Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Agriculture and Human Values, Human Ecology Review, Heliyon, Anthrozoös, Society & Animals, Journal of Macromarketing and Psychology & Marketing.
Email: emdiaz@icade.comillas.edu
Dra. Loredana Loy
University of Miami
Loredana Loy is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of Miami. She is a political sociologist with a PhD from Cornell University and an MA from New York University. Her research examines how media systems, organized economic interests, and political elites shape public perception and institutional responses to major social problems, such as climate change and the exploitation of nonhuman animals, and to efforts to implement socially transformative interventions to address these problems. Loredana’s work has been published in Science and Public Policy, Climatic Change, and Climate Policy among others, has been reported in media publications such as Vox, Inside Climate News, Sentient Media, and has been featured in a United States congressional hearing. Her newest article examining backlash against dietary change as a climate mitigation strategy is forthcoming in Social Problems.
Email address: mll283@cornell.edu
Articles for this special issue will be accepted between 1 and 31 March 2026 and should be submitted via the Open Journal System (OJS) platform on the Ámbitos. Revista Internacional de Comunicación website.
Articles must follow the journal's submission guidelines and may be submitted in English, Spanish or Portuguese.
The special issue will be published in issue 69 of Ámbitos. Revista Internacional de Comunicación, which is scheduled for publication in October 2026.
Any questions about this special issue can be sent by email to the following address: olatz.aranceta@upf.edu
