Media

coverage
of
By Anika
Chin
People’s perception of fires can be influenced by
media coverage and one’s opinions may be
affected by the way information is portrayed in
the media.
Sensational descriptions Alternative descriptions

- Wildfires raged out of control - Burned vegetation

killing all in their path.
- Removed
- A forest fire devastated a vegetation
portion of Florida’s coast.
- Forest renewal
- The fire has left a path of - Clearing the forest
destruction 30 miles wide. of underbrush
- Opening the forest
- Fires charred and destroyed
12,000 acres of land. for new vegetation
to grow.
- The forest is a blackened pile - Improving habitats
of ash.
-Helps facilitate clearing out underbrush

-Revitalizes forests’

-Weeds out feeble trees and sustains biological

diversity.

-They can also help various conifer species to revive

and yet the media routinely characterizes wildfires as
unwelcome and perilous.
•The reporting often emphasizes the dramatic facets to
draw people into the story but seems to inform people
less on why a fire is happening, how many acres were
restored instead of destroyed and how it’s tied into other
issues.

•The lack of stories highlighting the biological incentives

are subjugated by large spikes in coverage on firefighting
and infrastructural disasters that occur during major
fires... this poses challenges for educational knowledge
about ecological benefits to be overshadowed by reports
of disaster.

•With a more represented coverage,

the advantageous facets of wildfires
may become a more salient issue
for media consumers.