Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire: Examining Associated Press Coverage of Wildfires in the US

CFAES Research Forum- 1st place, Social SciencesThis research project examined newspaper articles surrounding United States wildfires that were published by the Associated Press. Following the Starbuck Fires in the western United States, which devastated many farms and ranches in 2017, I wanted to investigate if and how print media focused on agricultural and environmental issues related to wildfire tragedies. Using the framing theory, this study examined how news surrounding wildfires is framed and whether or not agricultural and environmental topics are discussed. Using Lexis Nexis, I searched for articles published by the Associated Press between November 1, 2012, and November 1, 2017. I then examined a sample set of 5 percent of the 2,990 articles (n=150), some of which contained several newswire stories. In articles that classified as newswires, I assigned a frame and actor to each timestamp. In total, there were 243 stories within the 150 articles and then assigned actors to each story. I created 35 different options of frames based on the work by Terracina-Hartman (2017). Nearly a quarter (22%) of the stories were unrelated to wildfires upon reading, and 10 percent of the stories were not related to American wildfires. These stories were disregarded from the study, which resulted in 195 frames. The most common frame was a fire update, which included a status report on the fire and fire damage (37.9%) Only one story had a primary frame related to agriculture (.51%) Two stories discussed threats to wildlife (1.0%). There were This research is important because it shows that agricultural and environmental factors are often not covered by mainstream press during periods of tragedy, such as a wildfire, despite large losses of farmland, forests, and other natural resources (USDA, 2018).No embargoAcademic Major: Agricultural Communicatio

American Red Cross

The American Red Cross has been plagued with problems over the past two years from an antitrust lawsuit, repercussions from the distributions of funds from the Liberty Fund to the survivors of the World Trade Center disaster, problems with donated blood, a negative report from the Better Business Bureau, and a negative news report on CBS’s ’60 Minutes’.  This case study looks at the history of the Red Cross, provides information about the services provided by the organization, discusses the problems the American Red Cross has encountered over the past 3 years, and introduces Marsha Evans who took the position of CEO in August 2002

Planning for climate, weather and other natural disasters: Tourism in Northland

The weather is an important ingredient for tourism, but it is also a potential source of hazard, with natural disasters resulting from extreme events not being uncommon in New Zealand. Using the tourism sector in Northland as a case study, this research sought to identify key concerns and issues relating to climate and weather, and to understand the flow of information between weather information providers and users, including tourists. The research also assessed tourism’s preparedness for natural disasters and involvement in local or regional civil defence responses. Interviews with key stakeholders were undertaken in three stages and analysed to generate insights into the relationship between climate, weather and tourism. The key issue identified by tourism stakeholders related to the image of Northland as a tourist destination and the impact of weather forecasts on domestic visitors, mainly from the Auckland market. Seasonality of visitation is also an issue. Climate variability (i.e. changes in every-day conditions such as rainy days) was not perceived to be a big problem; in fact most tourism stakeholders reported relatively little disruption from unfavourable weather conditions. Non-tourism stakeholders expressed concerns about longer term issues, such as climate change and its impacts on extreme events, such as flooding and drought, and sea level rise. The analysis of crisis and disasters resulting from extreme weather events revealed that, while there are regional and local response plans and processes in place, tourism is not explicitly integrated into those. A few gaps, such as communicating road closures or early warnings, were identified and could be rectified by better cooperation between tourism and civil defence organisations. In summary, the Northland climate and weather appears generally very favourable for tourism although there are some seasonality issues arising from the current reliance on coastal and waterbased attractions. Efforts to both attract visitors outside the summer season and to improve summer visitation numbers may be directed at addressing perceived image problems. There is also scope to increase the capability of tourism stakeholders to deal with emergency situations

A Critical Analysis of News Media Coverage of Hurricane Events and Caribbean Tourism

There is mounting evidence that the media is able to shape public risk perceptions of extreme weather events, which includes influencing tourists’ willingness to travel to destinations impacted (directly or indirectly) by hurricanes. In the aftermath of the 2017 hurricane season, the Caribbean region saw a sharp downturn in tourist arrivals, even on island destinations that did not experience a hurricane strike. The Caribbean Tourism Organization [CTO] and Caribbean governments have expressed concerns that media representation of the Caribbean region as largely devastated by hurricane events, may have negatively affected both the image of the entire region, as well as individual island nations. As one of the most tourism intensive regions in the world, how hurricanes are framed within the media is particularly important for the Caribbean and the millions of people who rely on the sector for their livelihood. Through a mixed methods content analysis of 635 newspaper articles and transcripts published over the last 40 years (1979 - 2019), this thesis explores global news media attribute agenda setting and framing of hurricane events and Caribbean tourism. This study found that, in the last four decades, the global news media has overwhelmingly emphasized negative outcomes for tourism infrastructure, tourists’ safety and tourists’ holiday experiences during reported hurricane events within the Caribbean region. The media framed tourists and their vacation experiences as casualties of reported hurricanes, provided limited information regarding the characteristics of hurricanes (e.g., wind speed, category) as well as their geographic proximity to specific island nations and trajectory within the region, and instead tended to portray the entire Caribbean region as vulnerable to hurricane strikes and other effects. The analysis also revealed that the news media consistently utilized four frames when reporting hurricane events and Caribbean tourism, the victim frame, the apocalyptic frame, the disruption frame, and the business-as-usual frame. The thesis concludes with recommendations and marketing responses that Caribbean destination managers can employ to help mitigate media misrepresentation of hurricane events in order to reduce negative impacts on tourist arrivals to the region and the need for hazard pricing during the Atlantic hurricane season

Paper 4: Twitter, disasters and cultural heritage: A case study of the 2015 Nepal earthquake

The purpose of this paper was to understand how Twitter users responded to the cultural heritage damaged during the 2015 Nepal earthquake. This paper utilizes 201,457 tweets (including retweets) from three different data sets. The analysis shows that approximately 4% of tweets were regarding cultural heritage. Moreover, asymmetrical information was available on Twitter regarding cultural heritage during the Nepal earthquake, that is not every site received equal attention from the public. Damaged sites received more attention than unaffected sites. The content of tweets can be divided into five categories: information, sentiment, memory, action and noise. Most people (89.1%) used Twitter during the disaster to disseminate information regarding damaged cultural heritage sites

Prospects for Nuclear Microreactors: A Review of the Technology, Economics, and Regulatory Considerations

The nuclear energy sector is actively developing a new class of very small advanced reactors, called microreactors. This technology has disruptive potential as an alternative to carbon-intensive energy technologies based on its mobility and transportability, resilience, and independence from the grid, as well as its capacity for long refueling intervals and low-carbon emissions. Microreactors may extend nuclear energy to a new set of international customers, many of which are located where energy is at a price premium and/or limited to fossil sources. Developers are creating designs geared toward factory production where quality and costs may be optimized. This paper reviews the existing literature on the technology, potential markets, economic viability, and regulatory and institutional challenges of nuclear microreactors. The technological characteristics are reviewed to describe the wide range of microreactor designs and to distinguish them from large nuclear power plants and small modular reactor (SMR) designs. The expanding literature on the cost competitiveness of SMRs relative to other nuclear and nonnuclear technologies is also reviewed, with an emphasis on understanding the challenges of making microreactors economically viable. A major part of this study focuses on the deployment potential of microreactors across global markets. Previous work on SMR market assessment is reviewed, and the adaptation of these studies to the deployment of microreactors is more fully examined. Characteristics that differentiate microreactors from SMRs and other energy technologies may make microreactors suitable for unique and localized applications if they can be economically competitive with other energy technologies, as well as meet regulatory and other societal requirements. Recent research on global markets for microreactors is evaluated and extended in this paper to a previously unevaluated use case in which microreactors can play a role in grid resiliency and integration with renewables. Further challenges associated with the commercialization of microreactors, in addition to cost competitiveness, are explored by examining the regulatory and safety challenges of microreactor deployment

The Effects of Natural Disasters on Donations to Non-profits

This study analyzes the relationship between natural disasters and donations to non-profit organizations in disaster-affected regions. Using regression analysis, this study seeks to determine the relationship based on various factors including the number of deaths, total number of people affected, the economic damage costs, and media coverage of a given disaster. The purpose of this study is to examine whether disaster-affected regions truly receive increased donations following a natural disaster, the sources of these donations (government grants versus private donations), the question of whether donations are diverted away from other non-profits in industries not related to relief efforts, the longevity of donation increases following a natural disaster, and disaster-related factors that have a significant and material effect on donations to non-profits. Data sources utilized in this study include the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS), EM-DAT: The International Disaster Database, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Google News, all analyzed from 2000 through 2006. Findings from this study indicate that the occurrence of a natural disaster in a given state generates an increase in donations to non-profit organizations, and hurricanes specifically, cause a greater increase in donations than other types of natural disasters. The increased levels of donations seen by non-profits were found to be sustained for two years following the occurrence of a disaster. Government grants actually decrease following the occurrence of a natural disaster, while public donations increase, indicating an inverse relationship. When considering specific factors that measure the destruction of a natural disaster, media coverage relative to state population elicits the greatest increase in donations among all factors measured. The study finds no evidence that donations to non-profit organizations operating in humanitarian-related industries experience increased donations following the occurrence of a natural disaster