Australian artist Fintan Magee thinks the media are guilty of misrepresentation and bias. In his latest work, he set alight a sculpture made of The Daily Telegraph newspapers in front of a mural of a man carrying a dog.
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"Man Bites Dog” is Magee’s reaction to what he sees as media bias against certain ethnic groups, such as Muslims.
"I wanted to use the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, The Daily Telegraph , as I view this publication as emblematic of the issue," Magee says.
“The artwork’s title derives from an aphorism in journalism: '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.'”
"(This phenomenon distorts) the perceptions of news consumers of what constitutes 'normal' rates of occurrence and significance.”
Magee says the mural of the man carrying the dog "is also symbolic of the master/lapdog relationship of the media mogul and the news consumer.”
