veganism: Vegans are generally represented as a "fringe" or even "extreme" group, like the act of not eating meat and dairy is completely bizarre, while the abuses of the animal agriculture industry are implicitly accepted. Generally any coverage is highly negative: while the vast majority of vegans are healthy, and we have much lower rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease than the average meat-eating public, exceptional cases like ignorant, uninformed parents who feed their infants a "vegan" diet of nothing but apple juice and soy milk are given plenty of press coverage. The vegan diets of numerous celebrities, such as Natalie Portman, Pamela Anderson, Moby, Shania Twain, and Tobey Maquire are almost never mentioned, while they are otherwise considered members of Hollywood/entertainment royalty. If a "vegan" appears in a sitcom or drama, we will likely be portrayed as either a flakey, new-agey crystal-gazing throwback to the 60s, or a stridently offensive ideologue preaching to everyone in their vicinity. Positive portrayals are rare. That means we vegans have a lot of work to do when it comes to public relations, and people's perception of us. Being the "preachy vegan" just turns people off, as does living up to other negative stereotypes, or being uninformed about diet & nutrition so that we suffer adverse health effects as a result of being vegan. By being reasonable with those who disagree with us, not making vegans look like complete freaks, and ensuring that we are eating healthy and well-balanced diets, we will help make veganism look like a valid lifestyle choice.|||i think they keep it quiet, they don't want to give us coverage, unless its negative|||It's in the news and other media from time to time. Oprah tried veganism earlier this year as well. And it was on cnn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYX18NGTw鈥?/a> I'm sure the internet has had a big impact on the increase in vegans in recent years.|||It promotes it. Helps people better understand veganism.|||nerdy_vegan is the sh!t!|||It's not really in the media as much as vegetarianism, and if it is, both diets, it seems like it's some extreme activist group making a bad name for the rest of us. Though ti's good to know that celebrities hold benefits and speak out against cruelty towards animals. They make everything we believe in positive.