Cultural identity and crisis communication: an analysis of media responses to the Lahaina wildfires

Abstract

The community of Lahaina, Hawai'i experienced immense devastation from the wildfires that swept through in early August 2023. This disaster prompted a profound examination of their aftermath on Indigenous and local communities. To further understand this impact, this research seeks to understand the response of local news outlets in the wake of the wildfires through examining the language themes, and levels of content that exist in articles following the wildfires. Special focus will be on local media as it can provide a more concentrated understanding of locals' attitudinal, psychological, and emotional state in Lahaina, Hawai'i. The main research question of this study seeks to understand what themes, if any, are employed in reporting by local journalistic outlets to cover the aftermath of the wildfires. Through content analysis, this research examined the latent meanings within local news narratives, focusing on themes such as cultural loss and recovery initiatives. The studied articles came from two local outlets, the Star-Advertiser and the Maui Civil Beat. Drawing upon existing literature on socio-political communication and more, this research seeks to understand the impact of these wildfires while examining the broader impacts of communication in emergency responses. The variables of interest include assessments of damage, lingering risks to human life and property, cultural implications, loss of land, reasons for the fire, recovery efforts, victim and casualty highlights, mentions of political leadership, and emergency rescue reporting. By quantifying and analyzing the prevalence of these variables, this research shed light on the messaging, cultural nuances, and communal sentiments surrounding the Lahaina wildfires within the local discourse.