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Citation |
Mouton M, Boulton A, Solomon O, Rock MJ. Health Place 2019; 57: 70-73. |
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Affiliation |
Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Canada; Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, Canada. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing) |
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DOI |
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PMID |
30999259 |
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Abstract |
Despite calls for the adoption of 'One-Health' approaches, dog-bite injuries remain neglected in healthcare and public health, and our study may help to understand why. Media coverage can influence policy directions, including policies that address dogs. We collected articles (n = 65) published in two local newspapers, 2012-2017, then carried out an ethnographically-informed discourse analysis of the dog-bite reports. The newspapers portrayed dog-bites mainly as matters of public disorder, as opposed to priorities for healthcare and public health. Even as our study took place in a city that has shown dog-bite reductions without recourse to 'breed bans' or restrictions (i.e., breed-specific legislation), journalists still tended to emphasize dog breed as a narrative element in explaining dog-bite incidents. Nonetheless, the news coverage did not reproduce a 'nature versus nurture' dichotomy. Rather, the journalists presented dog breed, and presumably associated aggressive behaviour, as entanglements with social, economic, and cultural contexts. Meanwhile, the news stories reduced contextual complexity to geographic locations, as codes for community reputation, in attributing causality and morality. Language: en |
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Keywords |
Animal behaviour; Communications media; Environmental policy; Injury; Prevention and control; Urban health |