Honors Theses (Journalism and Communication)

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Browsing Honors Theses (Journalism and Communication) by Author "Wilson, Nathan"

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    Assessing the Prevalence of Prescribed Fire in Pacific Northwest Wildfire Media Coverage
    (University of Oregon, 2024) Wilson, Nathan
    As climate change alters landscapes and exacerbates natural hazards like wildfires, people increasingly experience anxiety, dread, and loss, all of which negatively impact mental health. When the print media reports on wildfire events, previous research has shown that newspapers primarily focus on immediate developments, such as acres burned and containment efforts, rather than offering comprehensive discussion of wildfire, including strategies to mitigate future wildfire risk. Prescribed fire is one strategy to do so, and many ecosystems across the Pacific Northwest would readily benefit from more frequent, low-severity fire. This study seeks to determine whether print media in the Pacific Northwest follows a solutions journalism framework in their wildfire coverage, which, by highlighting solutions to prevalent problems, can provide readers with a greater sense of optimism and self-efficacy. Through content analysis, this study examines how often the Post Register, Idaho Spokesman, The Oregonian, The Register-Guard, The Seattle Times, and The Spokesman-Review mentioned prescribed fire in their coverage both during and outside of wildfire events, and the tone of that coverage, from 2010 to 2023. It found that major Pacific Northwest newspapers rarely mentioned prescribed fire when reporting on wildfires, but provided more coverage and more positive coverage of prescribed fire disconnected from specific wildfire events during the study period. These results show that large circulation print media outlets in the Pacific Northwest had positive coverage of prescribed fire overall, but relatively narrow coverage of wildfire events from a solutions journalism perspective.