Visualizing Resilience: Understanding the Visual Communication of Resilience Through News Photographs in Elicitation Interviews with Wildland Firefighters

Abstract

The term resilience guides prevention of and recovery from climate-induced wildfires in the United States. News often sensationalizes wildfires as crises with less reported afterward. Countering grim portrayals in photojournalism, restorative narratives can convey hope and resilience after crises. How viewers perceive resilience in news photographs gives insight into beliefs about self and collective efficacy in settings akin to those seen. Using elicitation interviews, this study examines how wildland firefighters, as viewers and doers, interpret resilience through select news photographs. Wildland firefighters identify manifest cues and latent associations that signal a capacity to be resilient alongside vulnerability, emphasizing susceptibility to see strength. The study offers practical considerations to capture resilience through visual reportage of disaster recovery.