Virtual Menageries: Animals as Mediators in Network Cultures

摘要

What do Linux, Firefox, MSN, Hootsuite, GitHub, TripAdvisor,Baidu, and Bumble have in common? The answer: they all useanimal imagery in their logos. At first, this might seem like atrivial observation. In our busy and hurried lives, we tend notto read very much into logos. We take them for granted. We assume that marketingdepartments merely wish to create something memorable and instantly recognizable.However, anyone who has worked in a marketing department, especially fora major corporate brand, will tell you that the thought and creativity invested intothe symbolism of a logo is anything but trivial. What, then, are we to make of theubiquity of animal imagery in the corporate logos of digital media organizations?How else is animal imagery used in the world of digital networks? What moralsignificance should we attach to the use of animal imagery? These are the drivingquestions behind Jody Berland’s latest book, Virtual Menageries: Animals asMediators in Network Cultures.