This presentation was given at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers presenting the results of the peer-reviewed article "‘Man-eaters’ in the Media: Representation of Human-leopard Interactions in India Across Local, National, and International Media" in Conservation & Society, by Crystal A. Crown & Kalli F. Doubleday http://www.conservationandsociety.org/article.asp?issn=0972-4923;year=2017;volume=15;issue=3;spage=304;epage=312;aulast=Crown

1. Representation of Human-Leopard Conflict
in India across Local, National,
& International Media
Kalli Doubleday* | University of Texas, Austin | kdoubleday@utexas.edu
Crystal Crown | Conservation Biologist | crystal.a.crown@gmail.com

2. High HLC
States
Local (N=100): Assam Sentinel, Assam Times, Assam Tribune, eUttaranchal, Mumbai Mirror, Pune Mirror, Desh
Gujarat. Kashmir Observer, Greater Kashmir, and Kashmir Times
National (N=100): Times of India, Hindustan Times, and The Hindu
International (N=91): CNN, NY Times, Daily Mail, BBC, Al Jazeera, Telegraph (UK), National Post, The Guardian,
Washington Post, The Independent, The Times, Washington Times, ABC, United Press International (UPI), NBC,
CBS, People, and Business Insider
Publications Included in Analysis

3. Last Sunday, a leopard entered a
school in Bangalore; was
trapped, surrounded by people,
& reacted in self-defense.

4. Limited Research Area
Notable Exceptions
• Bara 2010
• Elephants
• National (India) & International
Media
• Bhatia et al. 2013
• Leopards
• Local news (Mumbai Print Media)

5. Mumbai's Leopards
Photos by Steve Winter, National Geographic (2015)

6. Partial
Understanding
Generalization
&
Media Influence
Agenda-Setting –specific focus on issues or
events for the purpose of influencing public
opinion (McCombs and Shaw 1972)
Framing – “process of culling a few elements of
perceived reality and assembling a narrative that
highlights connections among them to promote a
particular interpretation” (Entman 2007)

7. Partial
Understanding
Generalization
&
Increased:
Risk – Fear - Stigmas
(McComas 2006);
Flynn et al. 2001)
Public
Opinion & Policy
(Burstein 2003; Kirkwood
and Hubrecht 2001)
Indian policy-making often non-inclusive of
scientists (Niraj 2009)
… maybe disproportionately swayed
by the news

8. Methods
1. News Articles Coded: (291N)
• 100 Local
• 100 National
• 91 International
2. Comparative Content
Analysis on the data set
3. Difference between
distribution levels
Inter-Coder
Reliability
Authors coded 29 articles (10% of
each category)
Attained α > 0.800 all variables
except
• victim/perpetrator α of 0.797
• coexistence α of 0.785
• Both are acceptable (>0.667)
• Mean Krippendorf’s α = 0.934
• Mean agreement = 97.4%.

9. Headline Type <0.001§*
Human as victim 35.1% 30% 28% 48.4%** -
Pest 24.4% 23% 27% 23.1% -
Mitigation 15.5% 12% 22% 12.1% -
Other 16.5% 15% 21% 13.2% -
Natural part of
ecosystem
1.4% 1% 1% 2.2% -
Leopard as victim 7.2% 19%** 1%** 1.1%** -
Variable
Total
(n=291)
Local (n=100)
National
(n=100)
International
(n=91)
p
Agenda Setting
Subject Matter <0.001*
Human as victim 39.9% 39% 31% 50.5% -
Leopard as victim 11.3% 22%** 7% 4.4% -
Mitigation 13.4% 13% 16% 11% -
Invasion 26.8% 21% 33% 26.4% -
Educational 8.6% 5% 13% 7.7% -
§ = Fisher’s exact test.
* = Significant p value
** Standardized
residual less than -2 or
greater than 2.

10. Variable
Total
(n=291)
Local
(n=100)
National
(n=100)
Internationa
l (n=91)
p
Social Unrest 21.6% 24% 29% 11%** 0.008*
Coexistence 11.7% 7% 17% 11% 0.086
Social Unrest Frame
• Emphasizes conflict between
individuals, groups, or
institutions
• Ex. protests, lashing out
Coexistence Frame
• Sharing space
• the possibility of coexistence
• part of nature

11. Variable Total (n=291)
Local
(n=100)
National
(n=100)
International
(n=91)
p
Cause attribution
Local people 17.2% 12% 15% 25.3% 0.041*
Government 2.7% 1% 5% 2.2% 0.230§
Leopards 6.5% 7% 4% 8.8% 0.397
Chance 2.1% 4% 2% 0% 0.173§
General 17.9% 8%** 16% 30.8%**
<0.001
*
Conservation 1.7% 0% 3% 2.2% 0.283§
Total 35.7% 24% 29% 56% -
Variable
Total
(n=291)
Local
(n=100)
National
(n=100)
International
(n=91)
p
Responsibility for solution
Local people 8.6% 12% 11% 2.2%** 0.031*
Government/Group 11.3% 12% 17% 4.4% 0.022*
Total 14.8% 17% 22% 4.4% -
Responsibility Framing
Cause Attribution
Framing
Responsibility
for Solution
“[presenting] an issue …in such a
way as to attribute responsibility
for its cause or solution to either
the government of an individual
or group” (Semenko &
Valkenburg 2000)

12. Determining Emotional Frame
1) Coding several variables
• Fear inducing wording
• Sympathetic wording
• Leopard as victim or
perpetrator
• Human aggressor
2) Presence or Absence of
elements determined sub-
frame
Variable
Total
(n=291)
Local
(n=100)
National
(n=100)
International
(n=91)
p
Framing
Emotional <0.003*
Fear inducing 48.1% 52% 39% 58.2% -
Sympathetic 21% 24% 26%** 7.7%** -
Sensationalist 10.3% 14% 5% 8.8% -
Total 79.4% 90% 70% 74.7% -

13. Most Common Emotional Frame Sub-Type: Fear Inducing
Most Common Subject Matter: Human as Victim
Most Common Headline: Human as Victim & Leopard as Pest

14. Counter Act Fear
Frames & Subject Matter with the potential to counteract these (subject matter: educational or
leopard as victim; Sub-type Framing: coexistence or sympathetic emotional) present less
frequently
National News
• most educational (13%) articles
• included coexistence, social unrest, and the sympathy inducing frames or sub-frames the most
Local Media
• least likely to educate readers about HLC and causes
• least likely to promote coexistence
• distribution level where such information could be most beneficial
Gullo et al. (1998)
• Media coverage reflected & reinforced public attitudes toward a conflict species (cougars)
• Suggests: more responsible reporting could interrupt the cycle by not amplifying already
negative feelings

15. Media Framing of HLC:
Focus on Cause
Attribution (Blame)
over
Responsibility for
Solution
Possibly Intensify this
Effect
Focus on Horrific Events & Fear Representation
=
Belief Leopard Attacks are More Common than Reality
=
Increasing Fear
=
Conflict with Forest Dept., Mobs, etc
Fear-Mongering Attracts Interest
But Fails to Inspire Engagement
(O’Neill & Nicholson-Cole 2009)

16. Short Comings
1st and foremost, complete focus on English-language articles gives us only a glimpse into
how HLC is being presented.
• For a better understanding, further research should be conducted using local-
language publications.
2ndly because India has a rich array of cultures, combining all of the local articles together
did not allow us to look at differences between regions.
Lastly, clear attempts to prescribe emotions to readers were obvious in our data-set, though
we cannot say how this affects readers, we can only infer possible effects based on existing
research.
• Future studies should be devised to determine how the media is actually influencing
people.

17. “…there is a need to rethink explanations of environmental
problems in ways that acknowledge the linkages between
social factors and the gathering of information about
biophysical change” (Forsyth 2003, preface)
@kallidoubleday
kdoubleday@utexas.edu
Thank You

18. References
Barua, M. 2010. Whose issue? Representations of human-elephant conflict in Indian and international media. Science
Communication 32(1): 55-75.
Bhatia, S., V. Athreya, R. Grenyer, and D.W. Macdonald. 2013. Understanding the Role of Representations of Human–
Leopard Conflict in Mumbai through Media‐Content Analysis. Conservation Biology 27(3): 588-594.
Burstein, P. 2003. The impact of public opinion on public policy: A review and an agenda. Political Research Quarterly
56(1): 29-40.
Entman, R.M. 2007. Framing bias: Media in the distribution of power. Journal of Communication 57(1): 163-173.
Flynn, J., P. Slovic, H. Kunreuther (eds.). 2001. Risk, media and stigma: Understanding public challenges to modern science
and technology. London: Earthscan.
Kirkwood, J. and R. Hubrecht. 2001. Animal consciousness, cognition, and welfare. Animal Welfare 10: S5-S17.
McComas, K. 2006. Defining moments in risk communication research: 1996-2005. Journal of Health Communication
11:75-91.
Niraj, S.K. 2009. Sustainable development, poaching, and illegal wildlife trade in India. Ph.D. thesis. The University of
Arizona, USA.
O'Neill, S. and S. Nicholson-Cole. 2009. “Fear Won't Do It” Promoting Positive Engagement With Climate Change Through
Visual and Iconic Representations. Science Communication 30(3): 355-379.