Lentils and a Lamb Chop. Soybean vs Seafood. Tofu or a T-Bone?
The Vegan vs The Carnivore — what is the journalist affect on the ongoing debate?
So, whats the beef?
How do you feel when I tell you that I’m a vegetarian? Awkward? Argumentative? Or are you just thinking not another one? Ineke Van Hullebusch described it purely as a “A label that divides people”. But what is it that lets the human race create a divide over something as little as someone’s diet?
The media.
The social consequences of being a vegan often impose, let’s say, activist vibes towards the precipitator not only in every day life but across the news sphere. From The Guardian to LadBible and The Independent, the dietary group are constantly being scrutinised when outside the comforts of their social media accounts. With the number of vegans quadrupling between 2014–2019 in the UK alone, it seems the debate will only be getting stronger and stronger.
You may have heard the term vegan being thrown about between Twitter to Instagram but has now become the forefront of our news stories and is being used as an insult while being generalised in the mainstream lime light.
The word vegan was coined in 1944, by why now is the term making its way into the limelight of traditional news outlets?
The argument on traditional online news platforms
“The aggression and hypocrisy of devoted vegans is damaging the movement — we must take the public with us”, is just one example of a headline from The Independent. Using adjectives such as “aggression” and “hypocrisy” sets out to give vegans a negative persona before the article has even started.
Myth spreading or busting?
Many articles and headlines define the vegan diet with a negative characterisation, however the comments of these sections create a whole new word. It appears the stories surrounding the diet have also built a platform for a niche audience to go and share their vigorous opinion of the subject. Essentially myth spreading and sparking an argument with others who have contrasting their ideas. A Daily Mail article from 2018 sparked huge debate on this topic, Do People Hate Vegans? generated over 650 comments. It also touches upon the opinion of ‘celebrities’ and well know figures in the media, do these figures really influence our thoughts on the diet?
To get an enhanced view on this topic I created a range of questions to ask both my Twitter and Facebook audience to find out their opinions.
I actually discovered that 80% of people wanted to essentially challenge these views and made them want to eat more plant based foods.
Does this make you want to eat more plant based or avoid the topic? Let me know on my twitter page @DFCJourno. At 2pm on Tuesday 9th December I will also be tweeting live from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism event, where I will be joining guests from Brazil and the UK for a panel discussion and Q&A to find out how British chicken is helping to destroy the planet and what we can do about it.
WEEK 3 — TEDxTalk of the week
Welcome to Week 3 of ‘TEDxTalk of the week’. The presentation from Simran Oberoi Multani — ‘Myth busting Veganism’ ties in perfectly with this weeks topic.
