Themes and patterns in print media coverage of wildfires in the USA, Canada and Australia: 1986–2016
Sonya Sachdeva A * and Sarah McCaffrey B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, 1033 University Pl., Evanston, IL 60201, USA.
B Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service, 240 West Prospect Road, Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA.
* Correspondence to: sonya.s.sachdeva@usda.gov
International Journal of Wildland Fire 31(12) 1089-1102 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF22174
Submitted: 29 July 2022 Accepted: 25 September 2022 Published: 25 October 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of IAWF. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Background: Media wildfire coverage can shape public knowledge on fire-related issues, and potentially influence management decisions, so understanding the content of its coverage is important. Previous research examining media wildfire coverage has primarily focused on either a single fire or issue, and provides little insight about the range of wildfire-related topics discussed in the media.
Aims: We aimed to assess wildfire topics covered in print media between 1986 and 2016 across the USA, Canada and Australia.
Methods: Machine learning-based automated content analyses were conducted to identify primary topics within news articles and to map relationships between topics.
Key results: News articles related to wildfire were clustered into four topic areas: Fire Response, Management, Environmental Conditions and Property Preparedness. Notable between-country differences emerge: the US media coverage focuses most on firefighting; Canadian coverage, climate change; and Australian coverage, preparedness.
Conclusions: Our results reveal that: (1) wildfire media coverage has increased over the past 30 years; (2) coverage is more varied than the common perspective, i.e. media continues to portray fires in a negative light; and (3) topic coverage varies significantly between countries.
Implications: These findings can help identify gaps in media coverage, and provide insights into critical topics, or relationships between topics, that may need additional emphasis in conversations about how to better learn to live with fire.
Keywords: computational text analysis, cross-national analysis, environmental communication, management and climate change, news media, prescribed fire, wildfires.
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