The missing Evansdale cousins Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook was a very eery, local mystery that captured national attention. Coverage of the disappearance was prevalent throughout news stations all over the US and especially Iowa, but none of which gives the viewer an inside gaze of people who live in that community and their personal perspectives.
The first video clip is an interview of Bob Meyer, a retired firefighter in Evansdale who has grown up in that town his whole life. He is extremely familiar with the town norms, people, and area as he discusses through the clip. "It makes you want to not even let your child go out and ride with out being attended by an adult." The gripping reality of that statement made by Meyer partially explains the news value of this narrative. In a small town where an act of violence like this one was unheard of, now is compromised by this mysterious abduction and is clearly making the community question the saftey of the community. Another difficulty for the Evansdale people to deal with is the place in which the bodies were found; A forest preserve mostly occupied by locals, again compromising the safeness of the town.
The premise of the second clip is the press conference with the Evansdale PD captain where he explains that two bodies have been found in a forest wild life near the town. This clip has an abundance of news value because of is relaying information about a nationally known abduction. For months the community, the state of Iowa and even the nation has wondered what happened to Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook. This video displays the whole press conference where the information of the missing girls is announced, as well as showing the viewers exactly what goes on at a scheduled press conference. What is particularly interesting about this press conference is that they are only assuming that the bodies found are the girls. They have not had the autopsy done, and are only basing their assumption off of evidence at the scene. Another great media element that this clip adds is that the reporters were allowed to ask questions that were not answered thus far in the investigation.
The third clip is a video shot of an Iowa medium just a month after the abduction. Most people would see this video and laugh due to religious or cultural beliefs yet it is a chilling clip to watch. She names off visions she is having five months before they are found, that directly correlates with the findings. If that isn't strange enough for the viewer, she points in the direction that the girls were found when she is asked where they were.
All three clips though very different, all exemplify great news value through the unique approaches used. One really displays how the communities safety was compromised and makes the town second guess letting their kids ride on the local bike trail. Another uses an objective press conference to update the followers of the story that the bodies have been found near the place they disappeared. The last clip, being more subjective and based of the mediums intuition, could potentially influence other reporters to use a medium to gather further leads on a story.
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