The phrase man bites dog is a shortened version of an aphorism in journalism that describes how an unusual, infrequent event (such as a man biting a dog) is more likely to be reported as news than an ordinary, everyday occurrence with similar consequences, such as a dog biting a man.
The phenomenon is also described in the journalistic saying, "You never read about a plane that did not crash." [1] It can be expressed mathematically; a basic principle of information theory is that reports of unusual events provide more information than those for more routine outcomes.
The phrase was coined by Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (1865–1922), a British newspaper magnate, but is also 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." [2] [3] The quote is also attributed to Charles Anderson Dana (1819–1897). [4] [5]
The result is that rarer events more often appear as news stories, while more common events appear less often, thus distorting the perceptions of news consumers of what constitutes normal rates of occurrence.
To some extent, a focus on unusual occurrences is unavoidable in journalism, as events that proceed as expected are simply not "newsworthy".
The reasoning errors caused by this phenomenon are also associated with the availability heuristic, which is the mental shortcut that relies on the immediate examples that come to mind when evaluating a specific topic. For example, because airplane crashes are frequently reported, they are easy to call to mind. This leads to people having inaccurate perceptions of how dangerous air travel is. [6]
Some consider "man bites dog" stories about unusual events a sign of yellow journalism, and in the internet era, headlines about them may be phrased as click bait. [7] [ better source needed ]
A basic principle of the information theory, which studies the mathematical theory of communication, is that reports of unusual events provide more information than those for more routine outcomes. The amount of information conveyed by a message about an event can be expressed in terms of its "surprisal", with surprisal defined as for an event of probability . [8] [9] [10] Measured this way, an event that is nearly certain to happen ( very close to one) carries almost no information, while an extremely rare event ( very close to zero) provides a very large amount of information.
In 2000, the Santa Cruz Sentinel ran a story titled "Man bites dog" about a San Francisco man who bit his own dog. [11]
Reuters ran a story, "It's News! Man Bites Dog", about a man biting a dog in December 2007. [12]
A 2008 story of a boy biting a dog in Brazil had news outlets quoting the phrase. [13]
In 2010, NBC Connecticut ran a story about a man who bit a police dog, prefacing it with, "It's often said, if a dog bites a man it's not news, but if a man bites a dog, you've got a story. Well, here is that story." [14]
In 2012 there were at least three instances: On May 14, the Medway Messenger, a British local newspaper, ran a front page story headlined "MAN BITES DOG" about a man who survived an attack from a Staffordshire bull terrier by biting the dog back. [15] On September 27, the Toronto Star, a Canadian newspaper, ran the story headlined "Nearly Naked Man Bites Dog", about a man that is alleged to have bitten a dog in Pembroke, Ontario. [16] And on December 2, Sydney Morning Herald reported about a man that bit a dog, headlining it 'Man bites Dog, goes to hospital'. [17]
On May 5, 2013, "Nine News", an Australian news outlet, ran a story headlined "Man bites dog to save wife" about a man who bit a Labrador on the nose, after it attacked his wife and bit off her nose. [18]
There were at least five instances of the headline in 2014: On March 12, Rosbalt, a Russian news agency, reported that a man in Lipetsk had burnt a bed in his apartment, run around the city in his underwear, and, finally, "bit a fighting breed dog" following an hours-long online debate about the situation in Ukraine. [19] In April, CNN reported a mother bit a pit bull attacking her daughter. [20] On June 14, the South Wales Argus ran a front page teaser headlined "Man Bites Dog" about a man who has been accused of assaulting his partner and her pet dog. The Online version of this story was later amended to "Man bites dog and escapes jail". [21] On September 1, the Coventry Telegraph and the Daily Mirror ran an article about a man who had bitten a dog after it attacked his pet. [22] [23] And on December 17, the Cambridge News ran an article with a headline starting: "Man bites dog then dies". [24]
On November 4, 2015, the Washington Post ran an article with the title "Man bites dog. No, really." [25]
In 2018 there were at least three instances: On January 25, The Hindu reported that a man bit a police dog in Houston, Texas, while trying to evade arrest. [26] On April 10, the Daily Telegraph ran such an article about a man biting a dog to defend his own dog. [27] And on May 4, the Salt Lake Tribune ran an article about a man biting a police dog while being taken into custody. [28]
On July 8, 2019, the Daily Camera ran an article about a man biting a dog in a supermarket. [29]
On April 22, 2022, the Associated Press ran an article about a man who bit a police dog while officers tried to take him into custody. [30]
There have also been a number of "dog shoots man" news stories. [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37]
As an example of a related phrase, a story titled "Deer Shoots Hunter" appeared in a 1947 issue of the Pittsburgh Press, mentioning a hunter that was shot by his own gun due to a reflex kick by the deer he had killed. [38] And in 2005, in Michigan, there was a case of "cat shoots man". [39]
On April 12, 2009, Kenyan farm worker Ben Nyaumbe was attacked by a large python. During his struggle to escape from the snake's coils, he bit its tail. He was rescued after it eventually relaxed its grasp enough for him to get to his mobile phone. [40]
Pit bull is an umbrella term for several types of dog believed to have descended from bull and terriers. In the United States, the term is usually considered to include the American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, American Bully, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and sometimes the American Bulldog, along with any crossbred dog that shares certain physical characteristics with these breeds. In other countries, including the United Kingdom, the term is used as an abbreviation of the American Pit Bull Terrier breed specifically, while the Staffordshire Bull Terrier is not considered a pit bull. Most pit bull–type dogs descend from the British bull and terrier, a 19th-century dog-fighting type developed from crosses between the Old English Bulldog and the Old English Terrier.
The Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 were a series of shark attacks along the coast of New Jersey, in the United States, between July 1 and 12, 1916, in which four people were killed and one critically injured. The incidents occurred during a deadly summer heat wave and polio epidemic in the United States that drove thousands of people to the seaside resorts of the Jersey Shore. Since 1916, scholars have debated which shark species was responsible and the number of animals involved, with the great white shark and the bull shark most frequently cited.
A dog bite is a bite upon a person or other animal by a dog. More than one successive bite is often called a dog attack, although dog attacks can include knock-downs and scratches. Though some dog bites do not result in injury, they can result in infection, disfigurement, temporary or permanent disability, or death. Another type of dog bite is the "soft bite" displayed by well-trained dogs, by puppies, and in non-aggressive play. Dog bites can occur during dog fighting, as a response to mistreatment, by trained dogs working as guard, police or military animals, or during a random encounter.
Human–animal marriage is a marriage between a human and a non-human animal. This topic has appeared in mythology and magical fiction. In the 21st century, there have been numerous reports from around the world of humans marrying their pets and other animals. Human–animal marriage is often seen in accordance with zoophilia, although they are not necessarily linked. Although animal-human marriage is not mentioned specifically in national laws, the act of engaging in sexual acts with an animal is illegal in many countries under animal abuse laws. See zoophilia for more information.
George Tirebiter was the nickname initially given to a dog at the University of Southern California in the 1940s who was the unofficial mascot of the school before becoming the official mascot on October 22, 1947. The nickname was passed on to George Tirebiter's subsequent successors after the original Tirebiter's death in 1950. The original Tirebiter was a nationally known figure and beloved canine of the University of Southern California. He would lead the marching band out at home football games and once even entered in an armored car. Tirebiter was kidnapped, or thought to have been kidnapped, multiple times by the University of Southern California's rival the University of California, Los Angeles, USC student politicians for publicity, and once possibly by a newspaper. The line of Tirebiters lasted through 1961 when the legacy of the Tirebiter mascots was replaced with Traveler, the white Andalusian horse ridden by a Trojan rider at USC home football games and various other university events.
Gu Gu is a male giant panda at the Beijing Zoo, born on 25 September 1999 at the Wolong National Nature Reserve. He has received international attention for incidents in which he attacked zoo visitors who trespassed into his enclosure.
Orcas are large, powerful aquatic apex predators. There have been incidents where orcas were perceived to attack humans in the wild, but such attacks are less common than those by captive orcas. In captivity, there have been several non-fatal and four fatal attacks on humans since the 1970s. Experts are divided as to whether the injuries and deaths were accidental or deliberate attempts to cause harm.
Cujo is a 1983 American horror film based on Stephen King's 1981 novel of the same name, directed by Lewis Teague. It was written by Don Carlos Dunaway and Barbara Turner and stars Dee Wallace, Daniel Hugh Kelly and Danny Pintauro.
Don't Bite the Sun is a 1976 science fiction novel by Tanith Lee set in a utopian world which the main character comes to reject. The main character and her friends are wild, crazy "Jang" teenagers whose lifestyle is full of reckless behaviour, promiscuous sex, repeated suicide, and a constant search for thrills. Over the course of the story, the nameless narrator fails to relate to her seven Jang friends but finds herself, feels emotion, and learns love.
Fatal dog attacks in the United States cause the deaths of thirty to fifty people each year. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, there were 468 deaths in the United States from being bitten or struck by a dog between 2011 and 2021. This is an average of 43 deaths annually, ranging from a low of 31 deaths in 2016 and a high of 81 deaths in 2021. Dogs killed more males than females during the tracking decade. Children between the ages of one to four are most often the victims, accounting for 29.4% of the fatalities from dog attacks in 2022; those under the age of seventeen accounted for 56.7% of all fatalities that year.
Coyote attacks are events where coyotes attack humans. While these attacks are uncommon and rarely cause serious injuries, they have been increasing in frequency, especially in California. Although media reports generally identify the animals as simply "coyotes", some attackers in northeast North America may be hybrids known as coywolves.
Sunny is a pet dog of the Obama family, the 44th presidential family of the United States. Sunny is a female Portuguese Water Dog who was a First Dog of the United States along with Bo. Sunny was introduced via First Lady Michelle Obama's Twitter account on August 19, 2013.
Beaver attacks on a human or domestic pet are relatively uncommon but are becoming more frequently reported as it is more common for humans to enter and disturb the natural habitat of these animals.
Florida Man is an Internet meme first popularized in 2013, referring to an alleged prevalence of people performing irrational or maniacal actions in the U.S. state of Florida. Internet users typically submit links to news stories and articles about unusual or strange crimes and other events occurring in Florida, with stories' headlines often beginning with "Florida Man ..." followed by the main event of the story. Because of the way news headlines are typically written, they can be creatively interpreted as implying that the subjects of the articles are all a single individual known as "Florida Man".
DogsBite.org is a nonprofit organization that publishes accounts of and compiles statistics of dog bite related fatalities throughout the United States, victim testimonies, an overview of breed-specific legislation within the United States, and advocates for victims of dog bites by promoting breed-specific legislation as a means to reduce serious dog attacks. The organization provides statistics and information to news organizations and has filed amicus briefs in court cases related to breed-specific legislation. The organization has been criticized for publishing misleading or inaccurate information.
Fatal dog attacks are human victim's deaths caused by dogs. The study of fatal dog attacks can lead to prevention techniques which can help to reduce all dog bite injuries, not only fatalities. Dog bites and attacks can result in pain, bruising, wounds, bleeding, soft tissue injury, broken bones, loss of limbs, scalping, disfigurement, life-threatening injuries, and death.
Major is a German Shepherd owned by Joe Biden's family. Major, who was born in 2018, is the first shelter dog to live in the White House. Previously, President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie had owned two German Shepherds.
Major, a German Shepherd, was a presidential pet belonging to United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Commander is a German Shepherd owned by President of the United States Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.