Analysis of ‘proactive discourse’ in the construction of local community by the media during the 2013 Tasmanian bushfire in Australia

Abstract

This study analyses the ways media texts attempt to enhance community cohesion through representation. Using narrative analysis and discourse analysis, this study analyses texts from local and national media in their representation of the 2013 Tasmanian bushfire in southern Australia. The findings reveal that media constructed a ‘proactive discourse’ in shaping the local Tasmanian community and enhancing its resilience by articulating shared narratives of local residents in this discourse. This study argues that the proactive discourse created a binary model that, incarnated with a media story of active defending, displaced passive emotions within the community onto the constructed invader whereby the disaster was relieved with more efficiency.