International news media framing of invasive rodent eradications

Abstract

Invasive rodents threaten global island biodiversity and have been eradicated from hundreds of islands. Eradication efforts can be contentious due to animal welfare concerns and risk to non-target species. The news media plays a critical role by providing context for eradications. To better understand how the news media frame invasive rodent eradications, we conducted a thematic content analysis of 462 newspaper articles published in newspapers from 13 countries between 1993 and 2014. Our results suggest that unique aspects of rodent eradications may encourage conquest framing, and cultural contexts of place shape framing between countries. We conclude that conquest framing by the media has largely supported rodent eradication effort