Man bites dog (journalism)
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The phrase Man bites dog and the related phrase Dog bites man are used to describe a phenomenon in journalism in which an unusual, infrequent event is more likely to be reported as news than an ordinary, everyday occurrence. This can be explained by the fact that the news media generally consider an event more newsworthy if there is something unusual about it. On the other hand, a situation which is commonplace is unlikely to be taken as newsworthy. The result is that news items carrying titles that follow the spirit of "Man Bites Dog" occur more often than those that conform to "Dog Bites Man," making it seem as though the former event is more common compared to the latter than it actually is.
Similar phrases related to this analogy include, You never read about a plane that did not crash, or You don't hear about the laws that a politician did not break.
The phrase comes from a quote attributed to New York Sun editor John B. Bogart (1848 - 1921): "When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news."[1][2][3] The quote is also attributed to the earlier living Charles Anderson Dana (1819-1897).
The phrase has been invoked in a literal and ironic sense when a news story breaks about a man or child literally biting a dog (as an attack or out of self-defense).
[edit] True-life examples
The Santa Cruz Sentinel ran a story titled "Man bites dog" about a San Francisco man who bit his own dog.[4]
Reuters ran a story about a man biting a dog in December 2007, and the AP ran a story about a woman biting a dog in April 2008 and a boy biting a dog in July 2008.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 16th edition, ed. Justin Kaplan (Boston, London, and Toronto: Little, Brown, 1992), p. 554.
- ^ Recollections of the Civil War By Charles Anderson Dana, Charles E. Rankin pp. xvi, xix
- ^ Frank Luther Mott (1941) American Journalism. A History of Newspapers in the United States through 250 Years, 1690 to 1940
- ^ "State Briefs" column of the Sunday, November 5, 2000 edition, page B-16
