Cheryl Wallach spent over twenty years working in the animal welfare industry doing everything from animal admissions, to volunteer recruitment and humane education, but the vast majority of her career was in communications, media and marketing. What surprises Wallach most is how much communications has changed in that time. Particularly the shift from mass media to online or digital. It's going to be very interesting to see how it evolves over the next ten to twenty years. One thing is for certain, the only limit is the imagination - whether it's used to come up with a great new creative/promotional idea or to develop more exciting technology and applications. One thing Wallach loves about digital journalism, particularly photography, is the creativity involved.
InfoStream (IS): Tell me about your current activities in digital journalism? What attracted you to it?
Cheryl Wallach (CW): I now have my own company, Cheryl Wallach Photography & Communications, where I utilize my skills for individuals and organizations. My approach is the same as it was when I would create adoption videos or advertisements - how can I tell a story in a visual and interesting way. This doesn't just apply to a campaign, it also applies to any event or shot of a person or someone's pet. For me it's all about creativity and storytelling. I've always loved to tell stories from my university degree in theatre to my communications work and now photography. And digital journalism is all about storytelling and creativity.
IS: Your passion for animals is evident in your work; tell us more about how this came to be?
CW: As far back as I can remember, there have been animals in my life. When I was five years old I arrived home with a fat brown tabby that had been hanging around the neighbour's for a couple weeks. "Can we keep him mom? It's a boy." I was allowed to keep him while we tried to figure out where he belonged. 'He' promptly popped out a litter of kittens, one of which we kept and named Sport. That cat lived for twenty years in spite of many interesting adventures. I think because my dad was never allowed a pet growing up, we ended up with whatever was of interest to us. This added up to Sport, two dogs, three ducks, a chicken, and a full-size pig. (Patches, the pregnant stray went home and the rest of her progeny were found homes.) Every one of those animals were with us for life. I've always had a great deal of empathy and compassion for animals, in fact when the old Disney wildlife shows came on and an animal or person was hurting another animal I couldn't watch. I turned and squished my face into the back of the couch and my parents would let me know when the ugly part was over.
IS: What in your history has brought you to where you are now? Do you have a model or idol that inspired you?
CW: It's funny looking back at your life's path. When I graduated high school my dad told me I had to go to college/university even though I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. So I said, "Fine, I'll do something I really enjoy then. Something fun!" It was between theatre or music and I decided on theatre and don't have a single regret because I learned so much. Getting involved in animal welfare was similar. I'd worked in the arts and then at ACCESS television when it was a public education station. After being one of many layoffs from ACCESS in Calgary, I thought - I'm going to volunteer some of my time doing something I love, something fun, and I started volunteering at the Calgary Humane Society working with animals. The rest is history.
One thing about working with animals is that it can become all encompassing. Whether one is involved as a volunteer or paid staff in any animal organization, the compassion and empathy you feel compels you to always go that extra mile, put in that extra time and effort because living, loving creatures depend on you. It's what makes the industry so strong, but also what can drain some of its greatest resources - its people. I've always looked at the people working around and with me and been so impressed by their commitment and passion to make a difference.
IS: How do you use media in the urban animal environment?
CW: Mass media still has a role in the pet industry. A story that you get on television can hit a large segment of the population that isn't connected to your organization and its digital media. What happens now that didn't 12 years ago, is the mass media story is also posted on the TV/newspaper/radio station's digital media and people can jump from there to your own organization's digital media platform. This gives you the opportunity to build up your digital media contacts and from there you can market directly to those individuals, building a relationship and future support.
One advantage the pet industry has over traditional industry, is we have the animals. Animals are hugely popular in social media. Cute, funny and irreverent animal photos and videos are shared in huge numbers online. When you look at animal welfare and rescue, the number of groups doing this work has grown a huge amount over the past decade and everyone is online telling their stories. The trick is going to be to stand out from the rest, to always evolve and try to figure out new and different angles and approaches. This is definitely a challenge.
You also need to be prepared for your ideas to be used by others. You can create an amazing piece, just to see others post their own photo with your words on it. It happens every day online and most groups don't have the resources to fight this. When I post photos with tag lines or script, I try to protect the photo by having the script go over subject, i.e. over the ears of the pet. People who would steal a photo often tend to be lazy - they want to be able to grab it and just use it. It's a bit more work to have to photoshop out some text. By Canadian law copyright of photographs is owned by the photographer.
The majority of my media work in the pet industry involved mass media along with digital journalism through photography, videography (storytelling) in social media. Over time, the resources pet related organizations put into digital media has increased. This coincides with the growth in digital and decrease in the use of traditional media by the public.
IS: How do you come up with themes for your media work?
CW: There are so many places to draw ideas from…. pop culture, music lyrics, a pet's name, a pet's personality, history, classic movies or sayings are some areas I've used to think up taglines or creative/design ideas.
When working with clients on events, pets or human portrait shoots, I look at individual personalities and interests. What makes them unique? How can I capture that in a photo? I believe that a photo that captures an action, something happening or an emotion can be the most powerful. Something flat or static doesn't really tell a story. I want to capture the viewer's imagination. I like to talk to people and really learn about them, who they really are, in order to come up with themes and ideas.
IS: In your experience, what makes a good video or photograph?
CW: There are plenty of rules around photography and videography that help set parameters for a good shot. I see these as a starting point - the technical foundation. From there a photo needs to capture the viewer's emotions and/or imagination. They need to feel something about the shot. It needs to make them think. People often talk about being drawn into a photo. A great photo will mean different things to different people, they will have a variety of interpretations and every single one of them will have a strong feeling about it.
IS: What is most rewarding about using digital media in the pet industry; what makes it all worthwhile?
CW: For me it's all about making a difference - a positive impact. This would be on an individual animal or an organization. I feel very fortunate that I can look at my career and say I've actually had a positive impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of animals.
