Assessing the Prevalence of Prescribed Fire in Pacific Northwest Wildfire Media Coverage
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Date
2024
Authors
Wilson, Nathan
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
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.
Description
71 pages
Keywords
PNW, wildfires, anthropogenic climate change, fire suppression, Indigenous peoples