TY - JOUR
T1 - "Fox tots attack shock"
T2 - Urban foxes, mass media and boundary-breaching
AU - Cassidy, Angela
AU - Mills, Brett
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank participants in the Popular Culture and Environmental Politics workshop at the Nordic Environmental Social Science Conference 2011 for helpful discussions of an earlier draft of this paper; and the article referees for their comments. One author (Cassidy) acknowledges the support of an Interdisciplinary Early Career Fellowship from the UK Rural Economy and Land Use Program (ESRC grant no. RES-229-27-0007-A).
PY - 2012/12/1
Y1 - 2012/12/1
N2 - On June 7, 2010, UK media outlets reported that 9-month-old twins living in East London had been rushed to hospital following a "suspected fox attack": the babies had been seriously injured. This story received sustained coverage for several months, and became the focus of debate over the behavior of urban foxes, and how they and humans should coexist. Using textual analysis to unravel the various discourses surrounding this moment, this paper discusses how the incident became such a prominent "media event." Alongside the contexts of the "silly season" and a period of political transition, we argue that this incident breached a series of spatial boundaries that many societies draw between people and the "natural world," from the "safest space" of a child's cot, to the categorizations made about animals themselves. We discuss the consequences of such boundary breaches, pointing to a deep confusion over the assignment of responsibility for, and expertise about, the figure of the "urban fox."
AB - On June 7, 2010, UK media outlets reported that 9-month-old twins living in East London had been rushed to hospital following a "suspected fox attack": the babies had been seriously injured. This story received sustained coverage for several months, and became the focus of debate over the behavior of urban foxes, and how they and humans should coexist. Using textual analysis to unravel the various discourses surrounding this moment, this paper discusses how the incident became such a prominent "media event." Alongside the contexts of the "silly season" and a period of political transition, we argue that this incident breached a series of spatial boundaries that many societies draw between people and the "natural world," from the "safest space" of a child's cot, to the categorizations made about animals themselves. We discuss the consequences of such boundary breaches, pointing to a deep confusion over the assignment of responsibility for, and expertise about, the figure of the "urban fox."
KW - Animals and Media
KW - Human-Animal Studies
KW - Space and Boundaries
KW - Urban Environments
KW - Wildlife
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U2 - 10.1080/17524032.2012.716370
DO - 10.1080/17524032.2012.716370
M3 - Article (journal)
AN - SCOPUS:84871322161
SN - 1752-4032
VL - 6
SP - 494
EP - 511
JO - Environmental Communication
JF - Environmental Communication
IS - 4
ER -