Fanning the Flames? Media Coverage during Wildfire Events and its Relation to Broader Societal Understandings of the Hazard

TLDR: The authors analyzes newspaper coverage during wildfire events in two Western U.S. States and compares emergent themes with existing fire social science literature to demonstrate how newspaper coverage of wildfire events both draws from broader social contexts and continues to perpetuate notions of fire exclusion.

Abstract: News media are an important source of information that the public uses to collectively define and respond to wildfire. Yet research on this topic rarely examines the mechanisms behind continued messages of fire exclusion, despite prevailing scientific notions of wildfire as an inevitable and vital ecological process that residents should learn to live with. This study analyzes newspaper coverage during wildfire events in two Western U.S. States and compares emergent themes with existing fire social science literature. We use discourse analysis and the concept of framing to demonstrate how newspaper coverage of wildfire events both draws from broader social contexts and continues to perpetuate notions of fire exclusion. This is accomplished by focusing coverage on the threat to private property and in treating public lands as a “non-property.” Similarly, resident support or criticism of firefighting efforts is presented as contingent on the protection of private property.