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Previous research on media framing of wildfire has chiefly been concerned with the nature of wildfire in the context of climate change and with framing effects on policy and public opinion. Empirical studies on media content, hence what is mediated to crisis managers and the public concerning authorities’ and the public's response, seem to be largely missing. This is remarkable, given that the media represent main sources of information that may influence crisis management and shape public opinion. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify key media frames relating to portrayals of public and authority responses during and after a wildfire crisis. The study is based on media articles from two time periods: immediately after the fire and 1 year later. We used a thematic method of analysis (TA), thus an inductive, “bottom‐up” approach. A core frame, Responsibility/accountability is identified, underpinned by two sub‐themes. One sub‐theme relates to the causes of the fire and its escalation, revealing a number of different interrelated blame frames. The second sub‐theme refers to management of the crisis, reflecting both authorities’ and citizens’ responses. The deficiencies of the former are implicitly suggested to have forced citizens to act to compensate for their inadequacy. The main theoretical contribution is the identification of an interrelationship between frames in relation to different groups of individuals responding to a crisis, pointing to a more complex view of framing effects. In addition, results show how media tend to assess crisis management based on idealistic criteria, inevitably making the evaluation negative. This contributes to an understanding of how media blame frames, thus “blame games,” may unfold. Practical implications of these results are discussed.

Risk- och krisfrågor har betydelse för alla i samhället. Människor möter risker i sin vardag och berörs när olyckor och kriser inträffar. Kunskap om hur människor reagerar i sådana sammanhang behövs för att vi ska kunna kommunicera om risker, förebygga olyckor, förbereda för nödsituationer och ge stöd till drabbade. Människors förhållningssätt till risker, olyckor och kriser beskriver och diskuterar forskning som belyser hur individer och grupper reagerar inför osäkerhet och fara. Boken presenterar en överblick över kunskapsområdet och ger även exempel på hur dessa kunskaper kan tillämpas i praktiska sammanhang. Boken riktar sig till dem som på ett eller annat sätt arbetar för individers och gruppers säkerhet i samhället och övriga som intresserar sig för dessa frågor.

The aim of this study was to explore the framing of victims and authorities in Swedish press during the narcolepsy crisis, occurring in the aftermath of the A(H1N1) vaccination campaign. Reporting from five major newspapers was analysed using an inductive and a deductive frame of analysis. The inductive analysis showed that the focus in the reporting on victims was their struggles in everyday life, coping with the disease, while the focus regarding authorities was on criticism and accountability. The deductive analysis revealed the use of a number of framing devices that reinforced the view of victims as vulnerable and authorities as deserving criticism. The underlying significance of the media portrayal and the implications from a crisis communication perspective are discussed.

In the summer of 2014, a fire devoured almost 14 000 hectares of forest in Mid Sweden. More than one thousand people were evacuated, one person lost his life and another was severely injured, and around 25 buildings were damaged or burnt to the ground. Concerns and worries about the rage, reach and pace of the fire are still highly present in the minds of many affected, and the enormous clouds of smoke, the extreme heat and a remarkable silence are some of the distinct and tangible physical memories many of those affected still recall when looking back upon this natural disaster. Its impact was severe on many people, at the time as well as in the aftermath. Similar to this description, extreme and major events are depicted through general impressions. However, the perceptions of disaster s vary, for instance among different groups of people, proximity to the event or areas of personal or work-related responsibilities. One group whose experiences and roles in the context of contingencies tend to be largely overlooked is women. In particular, with regard to their efforts concerning caring for children, who are particularly vulnerable and exposed to disasters. Although scholarly interest in the perceptions of women in disasters is increasing, studies in the area are far from exhaustive. Even less attention has been directed towards parenting and caring for children in disasters. This empirical study thus focuses on women’s experiences of a natural disaster, and how they managed their double roles as affected and carers. Drawing on qualitative interviews with parents, kindergarten teachers and after-school teachers, this paper explores how women understood, made sense of and dealt with the event, and examines their perceptions of the feelings and needs of children in their care, and how these were managed. Such knowledge contributes to understanding womens’ resilience to critical events., The abstract was published on the conference web.

In 2014, towards the end of a hot and very dry summer in Sweden, a fire broke out in the forests of the county of Västmanland. Fanned by high winds, this forest fire rapidly swept out of control, developing into a major disaster and national emergency. The acute phase continued for eleven days, resulting in one death, one seriously injured, 71 buildings and over 13,800 hectares of forest destroyed. Approximately 1000 persons and 1700 livestock were evacuated. In the aftermath of the fire, considerable criticism has been raised regarding the firefighting operation, communication with the affected communities and the functioning of the Swedish crisis management system in general. A number of inquiries and analyses have been initiated, some of which are still in progress. The fire has had dramatic effects on the environment, which will be clearly visible in the landscape for many years to come. Less visible, but equally far-reaching are the psychological and social consequences for the affected communities. This paper describes a project initiated in 2015 to study the impact of the Västmanland fire in affected local communities, focusing temporally on the first two years after the event. The impact is conceived of as deriving from the experience of the fire itself and its immediate physical consequences, and from adjusting to physical and social changes in the local environment, but it is also taken to stem from the multiple perceptions and varying understandings among different social actors of how the event has been managed and how it has been framed in the media. In the project these different perspectives are reflected in analyses of reporting in the media, examination of inquiry reports and other materials, observations and interviews with key actors, various stakeholders and community representatives. The purpose of the project is to understand how people and organizations have coped with and recovered from this particular environmental disaster in order to ident, The abstract was published on the conference web.

The aim of this study was to identify and analyze the ways in which images and reactions of the public are described and framed in media articles and reports. Reporting from six major events affecting the Swedish public was studied using a thematic method of analysis. The results show three dynamic interrelated processes at work simultaneously in framing the public: identification, characterization and evaluation. A significant contribution of this study is the emphasis on how this often subtle and implicit framing influences the portrayal of human reactions, thus possibly influencing the expectations and evaluations of both the public in general and crisis managers in particular.

Much of the responsibility for societal safety and crisis preparedness rests with local municipal leaders. These tasks are demanding, and often insufficiently prioritized and supported. The purpose of this study was to identify factors influencing motivation to work with these issues, and to explore relationships among such factors. Two datasets, formed the basis of the analysis. From the qualitative analysis, a model was developed describing three main categories of motivational factors: person-related, organizational and activity-related. Actual crisis experience was found to influence factors in all three categories. Differences regarding motivational forces could be identified among different roles among officials. Self-determination theory is applied to the model, illustrating possible ways to influence motivation for work with preparedness issues.

Purpose– Supporting and communicating with citizens is a vital part of societal crisis management. Training exercises may offer an opportunity to develop capabilities among managers in this regard. The purpose of this paper is to examine this potential in an analysis of how citizens were portrayed and perceived by participants in a major crisis management exercise. Design/methodology/approach– Observation, document analysis and short interviews during the exercise were used as data collection methods. Data were subjected to thematic analysis to capture core themes in relation to the research aim. Findings– Patterns in how citizens’ reactions were portrayed in the exercise were identified to form a citizen behaviour typology. Observations during the exercise also demonstrated some of the challenges in incorporating the citizen perspective. However, findings regarding the perception of the citizen perspective also demonstrate the ability of exercise participants to meet and respond to public behaviours with respect and seriousness. Originality/value– Variation is an important condition for learning in exercises, and the identified typology is suggested as a starting point for achieving this in incorporation of the citizen perspective in training scenarios. The results of the study are discussed in terms of a learning framework with the aim of explicitly developing crisis managers’ ability to interact and communicate with citizens in crisis situations.

Assumptions about citizens and their behaviour in a crisis situation strongly influence emergency planning and decision-making. This article therefore aims to explore municipal crisis managers’ views of citizens in relation to contingencies. We identified two dimensions in the municipal leaders’ views of the general public, illustrating how these views can be characterized by two separate stages. They embrace individual prerequisites for preparing for and dealing with contingencies, as well as characteristics of the current crisis and its effects on the citizens. The article highlights public leaders’ awareness of social vulnerability factors and demonstrates a more complex image of crisis managers’ views of the general public than has generally been depicted.

Issues concerning risks in the military have gained increased attention within the Swedish Armed Forces, particularly relating to the new focus on an all voluntary force participating in international missions. Military activities inevitably include an element of calculated risk-taking, while at the same time the unnecessary taking of risks must be minimized. Within the context of the specific mission and situation, a number of factors relating to demographic variables, traits and beliefs may influence individual inclinations towards risk behaviour. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between such factors and individual risk propensity. Data were collected from two samples of Swedish soldiers and officers. Examining demographic variables, negative safety values and risk propensity were found to decrease with age, while men demonstrated a more sceptical view of safety measures and a higher risk propensity than women. The trait known as lack of deliberation, reflecting an inability to think ahead and foresee consequences, was positively related to risk propensity. A more sceptical view of safety was shown to be associated with a higher sense of personal invincibility and together with lack of deliberation predicted variations in danger-seeking scores. The distinction between functional and non-functional risk-taking is discussed on the basis of the relationships found in the study. Implications for recruitment to the military as well as for training and leadership are suggested, emphasizing the need for military leaders to balance their leadership in terms of safety-oriented and risk-promoting behaviours.