Global response of conservationists across mass media likely constrained bat persecution due to COVID-19

Nanni, Veronica; Mammola, Stefano; Macías–Hernández, Nuria; Castrogiovanni, Alessia; Salgado, Ana L.; Lunghi, Enrico; Ficetola, Gentile Francesco; Modica, Corrado; Alba, Riccardo; Spiriti, Maria Michela; Holtze, Susanne; Mello, Érica Munhoz de; Mori, Barbara de; Biasetti, Pierfrancesco; Chamberlain, Dan; Manenti, Raoul

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109591

Cited by 17 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…It can also help identify emerging or potential challenges and critical moments for effecting changes. If feasible, conservationists should collaborate closely with media professionals, such as journalists, editors, and television program producers, to contribute to the media narrative on wildlife issues (Nanni et al., 2022; Song et al., 2021). A deeper understanding of and engagement with mass media can assist conservationists in more effectively participating in social processes and ultimately achieving desired conservation outcomes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We used latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), a popular automated topic modeling technique (Hoffman et al., 2010), to analyze Chinese newspaper framing of elephant ivory. Most previous research on media portrayal of wildlife issues has relied on manual coding for content analysis (e.g., Braczkowski et al., 2018; Crown & Doubleday, 2017; Dayer et al., 2019; Lyngdoh et al., 2017; Nanni et al., 2022; Sabatier & Huveneers, 2018). However, manual coding is not feasible when dealing with large amounts of text.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tracking Chinese newspaper coverage of elephant ivory through topic modeling

Gao

Liu

Luo

et al. 2023

Conservation Biology

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Mass media worldwide has contributed to increasing awareness of the illegal wildlife trade and its significant impact on wildlife conservation. We used mass media coverage as a proxy for macro‐level public opinion to analyze the media framing of elephant ivory in 6394 Chinese newspaper articles published from 2000 to 2021 and thus determine the effects of wildlife policies on public opinion. We focused on 2 events: the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) approval of China as a trading partner in the purchase and import of ivory stockpiles from Africa in July 2008 and the Chinese government's announcement of a domestic ivory ban in December 2016. Using latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling, we identified 8 topics about elephant ivory and grouped them into 3 frames: ivory arts and culture, ivory crimes, and elephant conservation. Over the last 2 decades, topics related to ivory crimes remained the most prevalent in news articles. Topics about ivory arts and culture showed a significant shift in media salience before and after the 2 events (from 0.44 to 0.19 and from 0.08 to 0.15, respectively, p < 0.05), whereas the other 2 frames did not change significantly. Contrary to popular belief, our results indicated that Chinese macro‐level public opinion on ivory had become more negative following the CITES approval of ivory importation and less negative after the ivory ban announcement, at least for certain periods. The relationship between mass media, public opinion, and wildlife trade policies is complex and requires further examination of the sociopolitical dynamics that influence media narratives. Our results showed the value of topic modeling in monitoring and assessing media representations of wildlife issues in the era of big data. Conservationists should remain vigilant of mass media coverage and collaborate with media practitioners to produce comprehensive narratives on wildlife issues if resources permit.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking Chinese newspaper coverage of elephant ivory through topic modeling

Gao

Liu

Luo

et al. 2023

Conservation Biology

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“…Four solutions have been suggested: engaging the social mind for optimal decision-making through workshops and meetings that avoid groupthink; understanding the power of values, emotions and experience in swaying minds through story-telling (Figure 1); changing collective behaviour through actions and participation; and thinking strategically for biggest impact such as through targeting networks of interest (Toomey, 2023). The second is an example of actions taken by conservation communicators that had a significant and positive effect on bat conservation after the onset of the Covid-19 crisis (Nanni et al, 2022). The review of 2600 social media reports demonstrated that people's perceptions of risk can be shaped by targeted, solution-driven messages delivered promptly (Nanni et al, 2022).…”

Section: Overcoming Conflicts Requires Multidisciplinary Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second is an example of actions taken by conservation communicators that had a significant and positive effect on bat conservation after the onset of the Covid‐19 crisis (Nanni et al, 2022). The review of 2600 social media reports demonstrated that people's perceptions of risk can be shaped by targeted, solution‐driven messages delivered promptly (Nanni et al, 2022).…”

Section: Overcoming Conflicts Requires Multidisciplinary Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spectacled Flying‐fox conflicts—tucker, totem, taunt and threat

Preece

2023

Integrative Conservation

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Flying‐foxes worldwide have suffered population declines and some extinctions, and due to negative attitudes to bats, achieving population recovery is challenging. The Spectacled Flying‐fox of north‐east Australia, a species vital to the wet tropics region, experienced a population crash of over 75% in <15 years. Despite this decline, little action has been taken over the last two decades to help the species recover. The scientific evidence of the continuing population decline of the Spectacled Flying‐fox has been presented to multiple levels of government, but detrimental decisions have been made despite the evidence. Scientific evidence and arguments by themselves are clearly not sufficient to change attitudes. The approach and narrative have to change to persuade people that the species is important for the rainforests and other forests that people love. Better engagement, narrative and story‐telling are required. Bringing together communication specialists, social scientists and wildlife scientists are necessary to create narratives that people understand and accept, and that persuades them that the Spectacled Flying‐fox is worth protecting. Actions to reduce impacts on the human community are essential but need to be done in tandem with changing hearts and minds. Otherwise, the Spectacled Flying‐fox will continue its decline.

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“…This creates a further problem for bat conservation related to conflicts between humans and bats (Frick et al., 2020). Unfortunately, negative perceptions of bats (e.g., Bhattacharjee et al., 2018; Kingston, 2016) have been exacerbated in the era of COVID‐19 (Nanni et al., 2022). At the onset of the pandemic, bats were suggested as the probable origin for SARS‐CoV‐2, the causative agent of COVID‐19 (Zhang et al., 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effective conservation of subterranean‐roosting bats

Meierhofer,

Johnson,

Perez‐Jimenez

et al. 2023

Conservation Biology

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Bats frequently inhabit caves and other subterranean habitats and play a critical role in subterranean food webs. With escalating threats to subterranean ecosystems, identifying the most effective measures to protect subterranean‐roosting bats is critical. We conducted a meta‐analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of conservation and management interventions for subterranean‐roosting bats. We used network analyses to determine to what extent interventions for bats overlap those used for other subterranean taxa. We conducted our analyses with data extracted from 345 papers recommending a total of 910 conservation interventions. Gating of roost entrances was applied to preserve bat populations in 21 studies, but its effectiveness was unclear. Habitat restoration and disturbance reduction positively affected bat populations and bat behavior, respectively, in ≤4 studies. Decontamination was assessed in 2 studies and positively affected bat populations, particularly in studies focused on reducing fungal spores associated with white‐nose syndrome in North America. Monitoring of bat populations as an effective conservation strategy was unclear and infrequently tested. Only 4% of bat studies simultaneously considered other subterranean organisms. However, effective interventions for bat conservation had similarities with all other organisms. If other subterranean organisms are considered when applying interventions to conserve bats, they might also benefit.

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Global response of conservationists across mass media likely constrained bat persecution due to COVID-19

Cited by 17 publications

References 60 publications

Tracking Chinese newspaper coverage of elephant ivory through topic modeling

Tracking Chinese newspaper coverage of elephant ivory through topic modeling

Spectacled Flying‐fox conflicts—tucker, totem, taunt and threat

Effective conservation of subterranean‐roosting bats

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