Maggie+Strait-Final+Essay

=media type="youtube" key="V55ZWQZ_KwA" width="423" height="350" align="right" __Tigers Next Door:__ //Exotic Pet Insurance//= "Tiger's, Lion's and Bear's..Oh my!" The famously uttered line from //The Wizard of Oz// rings just the same in this ABC nightly news bit released Feb. 25th, 2012. A news story as a part of ABC nightly news series: American Jungle, goes inside the scary exotic pet craze sweeping the United States.

Opening with an **extreme close-up** of a terrifying Tiger hashing its teeth, it's no question what this news story is hoping to evoke from its audience..fear! Following with a **video clip** of a bear attack, and **several 911 phone calls** expressing alert about wild animals on the loose; within the first 60 seconds audiences are left feeling a sense of immediate alert and near by danger. Following these scare techniques ABC follows up with a interview from Wayne Pacelle, President of the United States Humane Society. "This has been going on for years and years.." suggests Pacelle, however Pacelle's interview seems slightly out of context. This story is supposed to be about Animal Insurance, but after a 1:30 seconds audiences have only learned about the impressive number of animal attacks that have occurred in the past couple of years.

Following a **professional interview** with a seemingly trusted source of information, the story shifts to its central purpose-Exotic Animal Insurance agent Mitchel Kalmanson. Following his introduction we are given **multiple shot sequences** of Kalmanson surveying properties and inspecting Exotic Animal cages and compounds. Afterwards interviewing Kalmanson himself give the warning: "You think their nice, and cute and cuddly, and all of a sudden they're grown and they've never shown a propensity for being dangerous and they can turn within seconds." ABC news did a nice job of relating this story to **previous events** by mentioning the incident in Zanesville, Ohio. This gives the story credibility since the audience is most likely familiar with that larger news incident earlier that year.

Interestingly enough the story takes a turn and focuses on how much money Kalmanson makes per client, referring to it as "serious money". I'm not sure what effect this has on other audiences but to me I see it as a way to exploit the fact that exotic animal attacks happen in the United States. Money aside, the new story only uses **one graphic**, a map of the US showing which states require liability insurance on Exotic Pets. This graphic meets its purpose but is not altogether startling or very meaningful.

Overall I think this **VOSOT/Full Package** does a good job of including a variety of content (animals, interviews, photographs, video, 911 calls), it comes off as a professional news story and something to be taken relatively seriously. However where I feel this news story lacks meaning is in its lack of detail. Not once in the video is it mentioned where these attacks most commonly occur or where the largest population of Exotic Animal enclosures exist. For such a wide spread media source I would think they would want to warn their audience about if this is really a danger to their neighborhood or not! Cliche shots of roaring tigers and hissing jaguars aside this story conveys its information about Exotic Animal Insurance and the lack of knowledge on this growing trend.

//-Maggie Strait//