Twenty years of dingo discourse: Examining news media representation of dingo conservation and management in Victoria, Australia

Conservation and management of charismatic wildlife and pests is surrounded by social conflict. Analysis of news media can be useful for understanding changing discourse on environmental topics including revealing dimensions such as social power dynamics and conflicting narratives between different social groups. We employed discourse analysis to explore news media narratives on conservation and management of dingoes in Victoria, Australia. We included 238 articles from 2005 to 2024, coding them based on sentiment, news outlet type, voices represented, and key topics. Media attention to dingoes has increased since 2020, aligning with policy change and proposals to restore or reintroduce them. General news media outlets were more likely to describe dingoes and their conservation positively, and rural outlets to describe them negatively. Considering voices represented, general news media outlets represented a higher proportion of researchers and dingo advocacy groups, regional outlets more frequently represented local government and Indigenous voices, and rural outlets more frequently represented farming groups. Our findings suggest growing societal interest in dingo conservation issues and reveal differences in how social groups (e.g., urban vs rural) are exposed to narratives around dingoes. Absence of representation of Indigenous voices until 2018 may indicate recent changes in power dynamics on dingo discourse amid broader social change towards increasing Indigenous agency in environmental decision-making. Increasing media interest in dingoes in Victoria was linked with several key moments in dingo discourse, such as proposals to restore them, so understanding media narratives can support informed decision-making that can pre-empt public response to policy or management decisions.