The Mediatization of the Resilience Frame: A New Understanding of Wildfires in the Spanish Mainstream Media (2017–2021)

Abstract

AbstractThis book chapter offers a media frame analysis on forest fires in the Spanish mainstream media. Three of the most important newspapers are studied in relation to the presence of two media frames: the suppression frame and the resilience frame. After inspecting news and opinion pieces about wildfires during the last five years (2017–2021), the author identifies that the resilience frame is gaining prominence in the media. This interpretative frame emphasizes a discourse of climate change and management transition in which the need of new policies and measures are at the centre of the story, as opposed to the suppression frame treatment of fire as a “fight” or even a “war”. The chapter ends by pointing out some challenges that this resilience frame confronts in the face of a mediatization of wildfires and an increasing presence of specialized sources pointing out the complexities of fires in a more reflective manner.