My view

     People from all over the world are familiar with animal rescue through personal experience or from other resources. With technological progress, receiving news became very easy for people, so issues like the animal rescue became more publicized in mass media. Despite the fact that the media covers animal rescue issues, the topic is not popular and profitable for big companies to cover it.
To begin with, it is important to discuss how animal rescue is covered by the media. Most of the time any media materials related to animal rescue are in video format. In the article ‘By the Numbers: Why Video Is Effective’ HIV.GOV (the organization) states that video format content works better because ‘Videos are a great way to make content more accessible and inviting to a wider audience. Videos help people feel part of something bigger – and better convey emotion than text’ (HIV.GOV,2017). Before YouTube, people who were interested in wildlife had the opportunity to watch animal documentaries. Some of the most famous documentary contributors are BBC and Animal Planet channels.
      Some companies and organizations cover animal related issues and events on their websites. Big mass media organizations like BBC, Independent and Global News keep a separate category for animal news. Very often one can find information related to animal rescue on such websites because of two reasons. First, the website’s holder covers many topics and can afford to have a separate animal category. Second, organizations specialise at animal issues or rescue operations.
 Another popular method to bring the animal rescue or just animal topic to public is to write a book. Books are not considered as mass media but as print media (Balow, 2017). There are many academic and fictional books related to the animal rescue. Authors of such books write them for adults and kids. The books for adults contain information that is more academic whereas kids get easy to understand text plus some pictures.
Despite the fact that animal rescue is covered in media, it is still not popular. The reason why animal rescue does not make it to the top of the leading topics might be due to newsworthiness. According to Richard J. Harris and Fred W. Sanborn’s book ‘A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication’, the newsworthiness can be primarily characterized by Personalization, Drama/Conflict, Action, Novelty/Deviance and Link to Ongoing Themes (Harris, Sanborn, PP. 214-218, 2014). A tragic story about dying or successfully rescued animal will definitely make a strong connection with the audience which cares about nature or has their own pets. This excludes a major portion of potential viewers. However, animal rescue operations are quite dramatic, and this makes viewers watch to find out how situation will be resolved. Depending on the length of action (animal rescue operation), viewers might lose interest in it. Most of the time, mass media covers only recent big animal events, ignoring some long ongoing rescue operations because the audience would be simply tired of watching them. Covered rescue operations happen during uncovered illegal animal trafficking or during natural disasters, and both of them happen rarely.  Lastly, it is extremely rare to see a link to ongoing themes from animal news. According to Pew Research Center’s article ‘Leading Topics’, the top three popular topics of 2011-2012 for mass media were politics, economy and disasters (see Table 1) (Pew Research Center: Journalism & Media Staff, 2012).
Table 1

     These topics are mainly covered because the audience is interested in them and can relate to any of those topics on everyday basis. Only a specific group of people would read and watch news about animal rescue, because it is too distant from everyday life.

     Reference:

     D. Balow (2017), ‘Books are Not Mass Media’, The Steve Laube Agency, Available on https://stevelaube.com/books-not-mass-media/

     R. J., Harris and F. W. Sanborn (2014). ‘A cognitive psychology of mass communication (6th ed.)’, PP. 214-218, New York, NY, US: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

     HIV.GOV (2017), ‘By the Numbers: Why Video Is Effective’, DigitalGov, Available on https://digital.gov/2017/08/07/by-the-numbers-why-video-is-effective/

     Pew Research Center: Journalism & Media Staff (2012),‘Leading Topics’, Pew Research Center: Journalism & Media, Available on https://www.journalism.org/2012/07/16/leading-topics/

For Further Research

There are three websites, which I recommend to fallow or to check if one is interested in animal rescue. The first one belongs to international animal rescue organization (https://www.internationalanimalrescue.org/). The website posts project information, reports, and news related to animal rescue around the world. This organization is famous for orangutan rescue operation and they are often cited in academic essays, articles and researches. Therefore, visits to website will educate and inspire viewers. Another organization that works in Animal rescuing field is World Animal Protection organization (the website https://www.worldanimalprotection.org/our-work/animals-wild). The website offers similar options to visitors like the IAR’s website. One can read news, blog and current animal rescue operation results. Offered materials are divided into six categories: education, animals in disasters, animals in communities, animals in the wild, promoting global animal welfare and animals in farming. Lastly, I want to introduce the specific category of BBC news related to Animals (the website https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/clm1wxp533pt/animals). The BBC is famous for wildlife documentaries and covers animal issues very well on the website. Stories related to abused wild animals, stuck animal, rescued from death animals are posted on the website. In addition, just like previously mentioned organizations, BBC covers rescue operations and rehabilitation of animals after it.

What the Experts Say II

Sherril M. Stone from Northwestern Oklahoma State University wrote a research paper called ‘The Psychology of Using Animals in Advertising’ to find out how animals are used in commercials. According to the research, animals like dogs, cats, horses and rabbits are often shown in commercials. For example, during the Super Bowl, advertisements with horses broadcasted in a large number. Apparently, the result revealed that people make a emotional connection to advertisement, which included some negative scene or some animals. However, if an advertisement used animals in humorous, comical commonplace ways, then it is described in ‘behavioral terms’. Professor Stone states that ‘…marketing professionals use animals in comical ways in an attempt to grab the audience’s attention and influence their buying decisions. This is not to say that advertisers refrain from using negative images of animals. However, when used negatively, the advertiser is doing so in an effort to evoke an emotional response, which then results in behavioral actions’ (Stone, P. 21).

Original source: http://www.huichawaii.org/assets/stone_sherril_the_psychology_of_using_animals_in_advertising_ahs2014.pdf

What the experts say I

In 2014, the scientific journal ‘Bioscience’ published an article ‘Some Animals Are More Equal than Others: Wild Animal Welfare in the Media’, written by Ruth E. Feber, Eva M. Raebel, Neil D'cruze, David W. Macdonald, Sandra E. Baker, which explored the problem of media covering only specific reports about wild animals. The researchers found out that most of the media covered events were related to culling, shooting and hunting, whereas other activities related to animals such as marine debris, commercial fishing, and pollution are less covered. If the accident evolves into physical harm or some illegal activities then it is more likely that the media will publish the material related to animals. Apparently, the co-writer of this paper stated that ‘Editorial preferences toward illegal issues may be because reporters feel that the public will be more concerned about an issue if it is judged by society to be wrong’ (Feber et.al, 2016).


Original source: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/67/1/62/2641261

Current Event II

A young female orangutan was rescued by IAR Indonesia and the Nature Conservation Agency (BKSDA) of West Kalimantan, from a crate in a hamlet located in Punai Jaya, Durian Sebatang Village in Indonesia, where she spent four years. She was kept as a pet by a local man, who found her in 2015 in a palm oil garden close to his house. This young orangutan was kept in a 2m x 1.5 m wooden cage. The man stated that he let her go to the wildness but she returned. Despite his claim, the rescue team confirmed she was kept illegally. Later, the orangutan was sent to Senandung to IAR’s Orangutan Conservation Centre and put in quarantine for eight weeks. Despite the fact that the legislation forbid keeping orangutans as pets, people from rural areas of Ketapang District still keep them as pets.
Many non-governmental and international organizations launch rescue programs of orangutans in Indonesia, particularly in Kalimantan. For example, the International Animal Rescue organization has a base in Kalimantan, just like the Orangutan Outreach organization. In order to get support from foreign and local population, IAR and Orangutan Outreach organization create many videos about rescuing and rehabilitating animals. The videos are usually posted on the YouTube platform, where they can reach a bigger audience. These organization create motivational videos about saved orangutans. The Orangutan Outreach organization does not only create short videos but also films, movies and has a special application called APPS FOR APES. The purpose of posting any kinds of materials on the internet is to get as much attention towards the issue as possible. In addition, the social media, in particular Facebook, has an option to donate, which simplifies the process of donation for people who want to help the animals and the organizations.

Original source: https://www.internationalanimalrescue.org/news/orangutan-rescued-pet-trade-west-borneo

Current Events I

On December 1st, 2018, the Chinese Animal Protection Power (a non-profit organization) rescued 375 cats from being stuck in tight cages in Tianjin’s suburbs. The activists assumed that the animals were kept for slaughter. This operation was launched thanks to a young man who lost his cat and was searching for it. He suspected that his pet could have been stolen for meat trade. Humane Society International state that ‘North China, where the slaughterhouse is located, has no market itself for cat meat, although activists suspect that cat meat is sometimes sold as mutton or rabbit at roadside BBQ food stands. North, Central and Southeast China supply cat meat for sale in the two remote provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi in South China where cat eating occurs’. Fortunately, for Chinese local animals, the previously mentioned man is not the only person who alerted domestic officials about the animal slaughters. For example, around 1 200 phone calls that the police officers from Tianjin received were about illegal slaughterhouses across China. In addition, information about Animal rescue raids spread via WeChat, which is a Chinese social media platform.

Unfortunately, China did not have animal protection laws for a very long time. The only draft of such law, The animal protection law of the People's Republic of China/Law on the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, was prepared in the year 2009, but never legislated. Perhaps, a great push for this draft was civil shock from news about skinning and cooking live cats in the Guangdong province. With the rise of social media usage, many Chinese animal cruelty witnesses can spread awareness among themselves, and alarm not only domestic officials but also government officials about this issue. Perhaps if information about events like that could be spread wider and create a national debate, then Chinese government can finally prepare and legislate a proper animal protection law.

Original source: https://www.hsi.org/news-media/cats-saved-china-121118/

The Animal Rescue

Hello!

     My name is Valeria Govorchenko. I am a student of University of New York in Prague. This blog is dedicated to educational research of the relation between Animal rescue and mass media. The information posted on this blog will be related to how Mass media portrays animals, how the media covers animal rescue and the effect of animal rescue in mass media on people.

     The reason why I decided to make this blog is because I was surrounded by animals most of my life and I simply developed deep feelings towards them. In my life, I had great opportunities to take care of a couple of domestic animals. Unfortunately during their lives, they had to experience some physical pain and I had to perform first aid until the veterinarians came. Additionally, I am familiar with some enthusiastic animal owners who take care of street animals and find new homes for them. Perhaps these two experiences with animal care gave me motivation to do this blog.

     Animal rescue is definitely not 'breaking news' but it still deserves some attention. I would like to know how the media portrays and covers animals and people/organizations, which save them, and share my knowledge here.

Photo by Zev Yaroslavsky