“Framing media impact on human wildlife conflicts: the case of ‘problematic bear’ M49/Papillon in Trentino Region”

It is a tough time for bear conservation in Italy these days. Human-bear coexistence is being questioned more than ever and what seemed to be a successful project in terms of bear repopulation (1999’s “Life Ursus”) is now being criticized because -according to the Rapporto Grandi Carnivori 2020- today they are surpassing 100 subjects, a figure that seems not to be compatible with Trentino ‘s territory. M49 Bear, also known as “Papillion” is one of the subjects that raised the alarm about bear presence. Not only by turning out a confident animal, but because he escaped twice from the center where he was captive and became a mediatic hit. Previous studies have reported how general public perception of wildlife can be shaped by the media, in particular when they report rare events and accidents, like attacks or deaths (i. e. Sabatier and Huveneers, 2018). In my research I collected a total of 311 online reports from 207 newspapers published in 13 countries. Journal characteristics, stakeholder representation, pro-conservation contents and opinion about releasing or suppressing M49 were processed. Results show that among stakeholders, expert (scientists’) opinion is not equally represented in comparison to politics or environmentalists. Bear escape repercussions were visualized differently locally (a threat ) and internationally (an animal hero) and pro-conservation communication was scarce. “Mediatically” speaking, if we want to enhance conservation policies, we need more pro-conservation content in popular journalism. as well as more technical opinions, otherwise conservation won't be successful in the long term.