The Storytelling Arc & Social Media: Dogs Discarded Like Garbage?

What was your favorite story as a child? Was it one of princesses and dragons or animals that lived extraordinary lives? As a child, I loved listening to Disney fairytales and pretending that I, too, was a princess. While the majority of my reading is now done online instead of from my fairytale books, authors are still using basically the same techniques to tell news stories on social media. Although the characters and situations may be different, the story telling technique is still pretty much the same.

As I was scrolling through my Facebook feed yesterday, I came across an article titled “Once-Prized Tibetan Mastiffs Are Discarded as Fad Ends in China”. As an animal lover, I was compelled to read this article that was published by The New York Times. To me, the title was alarming. How can you “discard” a dog like they are a piece of garbage?

The first thing that The New York Times did right when creating this article was creating a title that was eye-catching. Aside from the article, a video was also created that further engaged the audience. Because the video was on top of the page and I watched the video first, I was more compelled to read the article. The second thing they did right was creating a post that was short and engaging. Following the traditional storytelling arc, the author started out the post by sharing the history of mastiff breeding in China. The introduction was followed by the problem, which was that no one wanted to purchase these dogs from breeders anymore. Because the dogs cost on average $40 per day to feed, breeders were going out of business and wanted to get rid of the dogs any way that they could. The climax followed and stated the issues that the Chinese were having with consumerism. The author stated that the breed was such a fad that people would even have plastic surgery performed on their dogs to make them more appealing for breeders. This fad only lasted a few years and the dogs were then unwanted and unpopular, even after people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their dogs.

While there is no clear resolution, the story concluded by describing how volunteer groups are trying to save many of these dogs from being packed onto meat trucks and slaughtered. While I do understand that there are many cultural differences between Americans and the Chinese, it is still hard for me to fathom sending my dog to be slaughtered and used for meat, regardless if my dog was a popular breed or not. Apparently many other Americans agreed, as this was one of the top ten most engaging stories on social media last week.