Wildfires in Los Angeles: How the European media organised the narrative of a community in an emergency situation?

Abstract

Global climate change is contributing to more frequent weather anomalies and extreme events, influencing the timing and severity of forest fires. As of 7 January 2025, 14 wildfires have severely affected the Los Angeles metropolitan area and San Diego County in California, USA. This paper analyses the journalistic narrative of this disaster from the perspective of the European media. The study takes place between 7 and 31 January 2025. This timeframe, although seemingly short, represents the fundamental moment to capture the environmental, political and socio-cultural changes of the fires that broke out in Los Angeles, as well as the production of news about them in the European context. Specifically, the research aimed to study the spaces and contents related to the narration of the environmental disaster in the main international newspapers, considering two precise phases: (a) the onset of the disaster and the construction of the news in the first days of the fires in Europe; (b) the main dominant themes within the macro-narrative of the disaster.