TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2017//
TI  - Local media coverage of wildfire disasters: an analysis of problems and solutions in policy narratives
JO  - Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space
A1  - Crow, Deserai A.
A1  - Berggren, John
A1  - Lawhon, Lydia A.
A1  - Koebele, Elizabeth A.
A1  - Kroepsch, Adrianne
A1  - Huda, Juhi
SP  - 849
EP  - 871
VL  - 35
IS  - 5
N2  - Many communities face increasing vulnerability to the risks posed by natural hazards, such as floods, wildfires, and hurricanes. In the public policy literature, natural disasters can garner the attention of the public and elites and therefore become focusing events that can open windows of opportunity for policy change to reduce community vulnerability to local risks. Past decisions by governments to ignore or leave hazard risks unaddressed can also be viewed as policy failures when the disaster results in loss of life or property. Whether risk from such disasters persists depends on whether governments learn and adapt based on their experiences with disasters. This research examines two catastrophic wildfires that occurred in Colorado, USA, to determine how policy narratives about these events may influence policy change. Media coverage is analyzed as a measure of the policy narratives within communities. <br><br>FINDINGS indicate that patterns of policy narrative construction in these cases may preclude public dialog focused on mitigating wildfire risk through policy change.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 2399-6544
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0263774X16667302
ID  - ref1
ER  -