California wildfires are increasing in frequency and severity, with catastrophic consequences for the climate and populace. When a wildfire occurs, many Californians rely on news coverage for up-to-date information, from fire boundaries and spread to evacuation orders. This reliance means that journalistic discourse takes center stage in shaping Californians' understanding and response to wildfires. Further insight into these discourses through the lens of linguistic anthropology can more effectively shape mitigation and adaptation efforts for communities at high risk of facing future wildfires. This paper analyzes competing discourses of rationalism, sensationalism, human dominance, and untamable nature in news coverage of the 2024 Bridge Fire. While the Bridge Fire was the third largest fire of the 2024 California wildfire season, it is nowhere near the largest, deadliest, or most destructive of fires on record; in many ways, it is a "typical" fire that receives significant news coverage in the state since smaller or more remote fires that do not threaten human lives or property are rarely covered. By using semiotic analysis to examine these multimedia news communications, this paper investigates the dominant discourses at play as they reflect and shape Californians' beliefs about their relationship with their environment and its increasing precarity.
Andrea Conover (Sun,) studied this question.