The News in New Media

Month: June 2022

Yellowstone National Park In The News

June 18, 2022

Earlier this week, Yellowstone National Park made headlines for two unique reasons – one positive and one disturbingly negative. The first national park in the United States, Yellowstone is best known for its stunning array of wildlife and distinct natural phenomena, such as Old Faithful geyser and its position over atop a “supervolcano.” However, due to major flooding this week, all park entrances have been closed as many roads were washed away and some campers stranded within the park.

Images from Yellowstone and nearby towns were jarring, as emergency services and rangers worked to quickly evacuate and warn other visitors and residents about the hazardous conditions and potential for even more flooding in the coming days.

From June 12 through today, there were 107.17K mentions in the United States of “Yellowstone,” a whopping 85% of which were negatively coded. That’s a rare thing for such a beautiful and iconic piece of American culture, and it focuses heavily on the impact of the weather. Terms like “disasters,” “destroying,” and “damage” are among the most frequent words and phrases used in negative content.

Discussions about climate change have spiked again, as people around the world are dealing with strange and destructive weather patterns, including brutal heatwaves across much of the Midwest and Eastern seaboard, as well as a freak hail- and snowstorm in Mexico City. Content and editorials similar to the following tweet have gained a lot of traction and circulation as concerns grow:

Bureaucratic concerns have also grown, as history seems to repeat itself with Montana’s governor. Recalling how Texan senator Ted Cruz flew to Cancún as his constituent state dealt with devastating snow and ice in early 2021, news surfaced that Montana’s Greg Gianforte was vacationing in Italy as the floods buffeted Yellowstone and the surrounding communities.

As repair and cleanup efforts begin around Yellowstone, some experts estimate it will cost billions of dollars to return the park to the state it was prior to the floods. The importance of the park as a tourist destination, cultural touchstone, and natural wonder indicate those efforts will be well worth it down the road.

In positive news, the National Park Service announced this week that it is changing the name of a major mountain in the park. The U.S. Board of Geographic Names voted unanimously to change the name of Mt. Doane to First Peoples Mountain. Mt. Doane was originally named after an Army officer who commanded the massacre of at least 173 Native Americans in 1870, and the name change reflects a “long overdue” step toward reparations, per Chief Stan Grier of the Piikani Nation.

Unfortunately, this good news was largely overshadowed by the natural disaster, earning only 5.02K mentions across the United States in the same time period; both news cycles peaked on June 14.

Hopefully, more good news will come out of Yellowstone soon as rebuilding efforts get underway in both the park and surrounding residential areas.

Author: Kayleigh Jackson