An Evaluation of Media Coverage of Wildfire Issues

Module Description: The Fire Ecology and Management Series is provided by the Northwest Center for Sustainable Resources and includes six modules. This series “is designed to address both the general role of fire in ecosystems as well as specific wildfire management issues in forest ecosystems.” The six modules include Ecological Role of Fire, Historical Fire Regimes and their Application to Forest Management, Anatomy of a Wildfire – the B&B Complex Fires, Pre-Fire Intervention – Thinning and Prescribed Burning, Post-Wildfire (Salvage) Logging – the Controversy, and An Evaluation of Media Coverage of Wilderness Issues.

Evaluation of Media Coverage of an Environmental Issue is the last of six modules. This module “provides students with some skills and practice in evaluating claims made in written accounts of environmental issues.” The module can be taught independently or as part of the series.

Module Contents: The PowerPoint presentation includes lecture notes and covers students views and preconceptions of wildfire, examples of advertisements and news headlines, sources of evidence, bias, and different viewpoints.

The 21-page PDF provides information about the module and includes seven sections: Module Description, Evaluation of Media Coverage of an Environmental Issue, Evaluation of Media Coverage of Forest Fires, Assessment, Notes to Instructors, Follow-Up Activity, and Resources. This document is also provided in as a .doc file.