In the digital spaces, I regularly come across publications focusing on cats. Let’s go adventuring together with the cats on the Internet exploring the digital Cativerse.
PS: If you come across other sources, please let me know. Fank mew.
Cat-related Publications on the Internet
Steen, Pamela, and Birte C. Gnau-Franké. (2024): “» Ist es obszön, einen Abschiedsbrief an ein Haustier zu schreiben?«–Tiere als Adressat* innen in (offenen) Briefen und (anderen) Social Media-Formaten.
This study in German examines how and why we address our (companion) animals in ›animal letters‹ and various social media formats. With these letters we express our emotions in communities in pet-related digital spaces. [in German; with examples from German]
Miriam Lind (2024): “Meowmy, Pawrents and Menschenwelpen ‘human puppies’: Linguistic practices of Doing Interspecies Families on German Instagram”. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211695824000461
This study shows how we portray our relationship with our cats and dogs online as one of love and kinship and of interspecies family. [with examples from German]
Patrick J. Owen, and Severine Lamon (2021). “Are Cats Good? An Important Study”. DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/V48D7
This study is a fun take on academic articles to be used as a scientific teaching and learning resource; can be disseminated freely und used for teaching – or cat-related purposes.
Naomi Truan (2022). “I am a real cat. French speaking cats on Twitter as an enregistered variety and community of practice”. https://doi.org/10.1075/ip.00083.tru
This study is an analysis of the language patterns used in French-language cat accounts.
Austin, J., & Irvine, L. (2020). “A Very Photogenic Cat”: Personhood, Social Status, and Online Cat Photo Sharing. https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2020.1746533
This study explores how domestic cats and their connections to humans are represented in a modern photo-sharing context through content analysis of Reddit, a popular social media website.
Shamayleh, Ghalia, and Zeynep Arsel. “Orchestrating Pet Influencers: Rhetorical and Visual Strategies in Creating Mediated Platform Content.” ACR North American Advances (2020). https://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/v48/acr_vol48_2659790.pdf
This study looks at how people orchestrate their pet companions on social platforms. It provides a typology of performative storytelling.
Kate Miltner: LOL Cats. Dissertation. London School of Economics. http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37681185/MILTNER%20DISSERTATION.pdf
A dissertation discussing why cat memes are so popular on the internet.
Maria Nikolajevna (2009). “Devils, Demons, Familiars, Friends: Towards a Semiotics of Literary Cats”. http://davidkidd.typepad.com/files/41388926.pdf
A journal article looking at the history of cats in literature.
Jessica Gall Myrick (2015). Emotion regulation, procrastination, and watching cat videos online: Who watches Internet cats, why, and to what effect?http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563215004343
An empirical study on the effects of watching internet videos of cats.
Radha O’Meara (2014). “Do Cats Know They Rule YouTube? Surveillance and the Pleasures of Cat Videos.” M/C Journal. A Journal of Media and Culture. 17(2). Available on: http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/viewArticle/794
A study on what lies behind watching cat videos.
