“We're all just participating in a culture that really isn't of our choice… we just grew up in this culture, but we can start questioning things and just not be afraid to say that we love other animals that they're astounding, and that we care about the environment and we want to be less impactful…  you just have to be willing to say things that maybe other people haven't heard you say yet.”

-Carrie P. Freeman

Carrie Packwood Freeman is an associate professor of communications at Georgia State University. She's a critical cultural studies media researcher and has published in over 20 scholarly books and journals.

She's also the co-author of Animals and Media, a style guideline web resource for media professionals.

Animals and Media and In Defense of Animals recently partnered to call for an update to the Associated Press Stylebook’s recommendation on the use of personal pronouns for nonhuman animals, so that animals in news stories would be identified as, "she/her/hers and he/him/his when their sex is known, regardless of species, and the gender-neutral they, or he/she, or his/hers when their sex is unknown."

The letter is signed by Jane Goodall as well as 80 other leaders, scholars, and advocates fighting for a better world for animals.

Carrie is here to talk about why it's so important that we change the way that we talk about animals in the media, in entertainment and in regular everyday conversation.