Fire Ecology: Resource Management Education – Reporting the Blazes

Students rewrite
descriptions of a
fire so the reports
are less negative
about the effects
of fire.

Objectives:
Students will learn about
sources of public
information and how
opinions are formed.

Activities:
Define sensationalism.
Discuss reporting styles
and identify words that
may influence the
readers'/viewers'
opinions about forest fires.

Organization:
Who: Groups of two
students
Where: Classroom
Time: 1 hour

Materials:
Pencils, paper

Subjects:
Language Arts, Science

 

Background

The fires that burned in Yellowstone National Park and throughout the western United States in 1988 brought fire policies of public land managing agencies under close scrutiny. The fires were widely publicized in all forms of media. Consequently, media reports played an important role in forming public opinion about the fires and about how agencies responded to the fires.

In a highly tense situation such as the burning of Yellowstone National Park, a national icon, public concern and emotion increase. Reporters, working in the dramatic setting of an ongoing blaze, collect information from fire–weary officials. Many of the statements made and stories reported reflect the emotion and drama of the moment. Emotion combined with the intensity of the flames and smoke insures a very sensational story.

man with newspaper

While the public does have a right to know about emotional, newsworthy events such as fires, the media has the responsibility to report the event accurately. Too often, news reports fail to include the real story of wildland fire, the fire history or recovery rates for different ecological communities (the amount of time required for a plant or animal community to reestablish following a fire).

Much of the omission of ecological science components from media reports is not intentional. The nature of the burning landscape appears very sensational, affecting our emotions. Thus, we focus less on the scientific aspects of the fire and more on the emotion.

Usually ecologists and natural resource managers cannot begin to address the impact of a fire until after the blaze is extinguished. Natural resource managers evaluate if they and the media over–sensationalized the fire and if either provided incorrect or too little scientific data about fire ecology to the public. Communicating to the public what is happening, why it is happening and what potential long–range consequences exist is the manager's goal.

In reviewing the Yellowstone fires of 1988 it is clear that although the fire was spectacular and did damage structures, some of the information provided and some of the information reported was incorrect and/or sensationalized. Conrad Smith explains the reporting of the 1988 Yellowstone fires in the article included in this section.

 

Descriptions of a
wildfire found in
popular literature
or news reports

  
  • Wildfires raged out of control killing all in their path.
  • The forest is a blackened pile of ash.
  • A forest fire devastates a forest in Montana.
  • The fire has left a path of destruction 20 miles wide.
  • Fires charred and destroyed 13,000 acres of forest last week.
  • Grasslands were consumed by fire yesterday leaving a blackened landscape void of vegetation.
  • The wildfire left a blackened moonscape in its wake.
 

Extension

   Ask your students to watch any television news story and write down (1) words that they would use if they were the newscaster and (2) sensationalized words that they would not use.

Ask your students to make up a newspaper or magazine article about a wildland fire. Student-drawn pictures could accompany the articles. Have students share their articles and pictures with the class and discuss the accuracy/sensationalism of each report.

Ask students to help you create a bulletin board illustrating the positive and negative effects of fire.

Show video tapes of television network news reports about wildland fires. Examine the different reporting styles and the topics examined in the reports. Discuss with the class any similarities and/or differences they see among the different presentations of fire stories.

 

Important Terms

  
  • Fire history
  • Sensationalize