Therianthropy in UK Media 2024: A Qualitative Content Analysis

Therianthropy describes the real identification as a non-human animal. It has seen increasing media attention as it gets portrayed as a part of a so-called "woke agenda" and "ideology." This study performs a qualitative content analysis (QCA) on all (census, n=20) newspaper articles from the United Kingdom published in 2024 containing relevant keywords. The analysis is focused on the accuracy of the impression on potential readers, rather than the intention behind false information. For this, this study compares the amount of correct information, incorrect information, and how much the topic gets used to propagate forms of group hate like transphobia.