Boars in the Media and Trans-Species Hate Speech

Abstract

Abstract Free-living boars have been a focal point in the media in recent years in Spain, where they have been often portrayed as threatening agriculture, health, the economy, and even the environment and as warranting eradication. However, other species with a greater assessed environmental impact receive little media attention compared to the free-living boar. Moreover, even from a traditional conservationist approach, boars are neither officially classified as an “invasive species” nor considered a significant health threat. We pose the following questions: Why is the boar's media attention so disproportionate to its ecological impact and what does the narrative behind this portrayal tell us about hate? We examined the rhetoric surrounding boars by analyzing 130 articles in the four most-read newspapers in Spain. We found that there are significant markers of anti-immigrant hate speech, and we delve into why this is concerning, even from an anthropocentric point of view. This study aims to highlight the lack of scientific rigor in media portrayals of “invasive species,” discuss the associated implications, and start a broader conversation about new indicators of interest to understand power dynamics and systems of oppression.