“They Don’t Promote It, in the Capitalist Society that Promotes the Meat Industry”: Echo Chambers and Media Mistrust Among Women Vegans in the UK and Croatia: A Contribution to the Debate on the Social Responsibility of the Media

Martina Topić-Rutherford (), Marija Geiger Zeman () and Gabrielle Round ()
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Martina Topić-Rutherford: College of Communication and Information Sciences, The University of Alabama, Department of Advertising and PR
Marija Geiger Zeman: Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences
Gabrielle Round: University of Salford

A chapter in Sustainability and Social Responsibility of the Media and in the Media, 2026, pp 253-275 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter presents findings from an original study conducted in the UK and Croatia on vegan women and their media consumption. The authors conducted 20 interviews in Croatia and 28 in the UK and explored media consumption, media trust, and the role of social media in news consumption. A two-tier thematic analysis has been used to analyze the findings. The authors first analyzed each country’s dataset and then conducted a joint thematic analysis for both countries. The findings show commonalities of views and experiences of women vegans in the two countries. In both cases, women mention hostility, bias, and misinformation in the mainstream media, leading them to express a lack of trust in the media and turn toward vegan news sources and echo chambers, increasing also social media news consumption. The findings are analyzed in the context of wider media representation of veganism and the social responsibility of the media framework. The authors conclude that based on the previous research, as well as these two datasets, there is a problem with a profit-driven mainstream media system as well as a lack of diversity in newsrooms that influences a situation in which only journalists who are friendly toward veganism write accurate and detailed news reports.

Keywords: The UK; Croatia; Vegans; Women; Mainstream media; Media trust; Misinformation; Media bias; Stereotypes; Prejudice; Trivialization; Echo chambers; Media consumption; Social media; Social media news; Trolling; Newspapers; Plant-based diet; Vegan lifestyle; Vegan groups; Alternative media; Media social responsibility; Social responsibility; Hutchins Commission; Qualitative interviews; Thematic analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:csrchp:978-3-032-00086-6_12

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-00086-6_12

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