Sunday, October 19, 2014

Concerning Sharks: Their Bad Rep

Flickr (labeled for reuse) 
I've written a few posts about sharks' famous bad reputation. I wanted to see what came up when I typed in Shark in the "News" section, and see what the first ten results are (I've omitted results that have absolutely nothing to do with the animal and articles reporting about the same event/topic). This is what I found:

  1. "Shark attacks girl surfing off Australia's east coast" (The Guardian)
  2. "Viral Shark Video Gives Rare Look at a Feeding Frenzy" (National Geographic)
  3. "Promising young surfer bitten by shark at Avoca Beach." (The Daily Telegraph) 
  4. "Man Bites Shark." (Project Syndicate)
  5. "Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water: Florida boy, 12, catches eight-foot tiger shark on his first fishing trip" (Daily Mail)
  6. "Shark swims near paddleboarder, surfer off Cape Cod beach" (The Boston Globe) 
  7. "Fishery research: A squid that a shark won't eat" (Asbury Park Press)
  8. "Greencastle girl, 7, bitten by shark" (WRTV Indianapolis) 
  9. "Shark Attacks 13-Year Old in Australia" (RIA Novosti) 
  10. "COLUMN: Close encounters of the shark kind" (Hattiesburg American)
50% of the ten first results are directly about shark attacks. This number is very concerning, either way I look at it. Either, the media is still very biased towards sharks, or what may also be the case is an actual rise in shark attacks: which forces us to ask the question, why? Why are shark attacks going up? I happen to think it may be something about us depleting their natural food supply. Or it could also be greater numbers of people taking to the water; population sizes are going up, thus more people are likely to take to the oceans, more people  = more chance of an attack. This picture is a concerning one either way you paint it. Either sharks are still being unjustly represented or we need to figure out what has changed in them.

For comparison sake I repeated the same process for dogs. As I wrote in a previous post, more people are killed by dogs every year (on average), so what are the first ten results for man's best friend?
  1. "Dangerous dogs: Owners face $20,000 fines" (BBC News)
  2. "Blind student refused service in Tesco for taking in guide dog" (The Guardian) 
  3. "Why was one 'Ebola dog' killed and the other saved?" (The i100) 
  4. "Pup offered to grieving owner" (Stuff.co.nz) 
  5. "Terrier mix mauls Silver Spring pet sitter; police shoot and kill dog" (WJLA)
  6. "Bury Your Dog's Poop to Stop their Constant Digging" (Lifehacker) 
  7. "'I love my dog more than my son': Mother makes shocking revelation on This Morning" (Mirror.co.uk)
  8. "Meet Britain's WIMPIEST dog Bonnie: Can you give her a home before Bonfire Night?" (Mirror.co.uk)
  9. "Dog rescued from Jurupa Valley dumpster adopted" (KABC TV)
  10. "The Important Things to Consider Before Your Adopt a Dog" (Lifehacker)
Alright. Just a tad different than the last list... Here there is maybe 20% that are about dog attacks, one of which isn't talking about a specific case. And most of these are quite positive towards dogs. These lists aren't in any way reliable data, I just thought this might be interesting to do, just to get a rough idea of what the media is reporting. Interesting results. 

Where's the, "I love sharks more than my son" article at? 

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