Who cares about bushfires?
When choosing a researc topic it is crucial to think about why you are researching it and basically, who will care. There usually is someone out there who cares, no matter what the topic, but you need to identify that audience as well as aking sure the topic you have chosen is viable, answerable and achievable.
I never really chose to study bushfires. It is a topic I was given by the people who are funding my research. This was the gist of the conversation that formed my research topic: we need an honours student or similar to study the relationship between emergency services like CFA and DSE and the media during bushfires. Now it is up to me to take this general idea and create it into a thesis.
So who does care about bushfires? Well, one would presume the people who chose the topic, the Bushfire CRC (cooperative research centre). The CRC fund numerous projects each year to study bushfires, not simply surrounfing the media but all kinds of topics. That is the first audience that I will be writing for.
Now that’s the first reason I am writing on this topic. There are personal reasons, of course, that I agreed to take part. I grew up in a town called Upper Beaconsfield, most people have heard of it but few have been there. UB is 60km from Melbourne and is on the urban fringe. With a population of under 5000 people UB to me is a rural village in one of the most beautiful settings possible. While it is not a hot spot for bushfires, the town is marred by the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires and reminders still exist of that year. Every year during the bushfire season the town is on alert, and a lot of preparation takes place to ‘fire proof’ everyone’s houses. With that in mind, as well as with my passion for the media, I have taken on this research wholeheartedly, knowing it is something I am passionate about, and have a personal sense of what it is to be in a bushfire region.
The subject is huge, although not too much has been written about it so far so it is an exciting time to do some primary research into how the media is percieved not only by emergency services but by the communities the media serves during bushfires. I am excited to do a case study on one particular town to understand how they see the media and what can be done to develop relationships.
This research is not only viable but will take the entire year to gain a deep understanding of all the issues. So lets get into it, shall we?
