Media myopia distorts public interest in US invasive plants

Abstract

AbstractIntroduced invasive plants are a major environmental problem, but public interest in invasive plants is generally considered low compared to climate change and threatened flagship species, hindering support for effective management and policy. To understand what does drive public interest in invasive plants in the US, we investigated Google Trends search data from 2010 to 2020 for 209 introduced plant species found in the continental US. Using a phylogenetically-controlled structural equation model, we investigated three hypothesized drivers of interest: (1) plant abundance as quantified by national and state-level occurrence records in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, (2) four key plant traits that might influence plant conspicuousness to the general public: ornamental use, human health risks, monoculture formation, and plants with positive economic value, and (3) media coverage, in particular the volume and sentiment of news articles over the same 10-year period. Public search interest was highest for the most abundant introduced species and those with human health risks, but significantly lower for ornamentals. News coverage was mostly negatively toned and disproportionately focused on a relatively small group of widespread invasive species, with significantly lower and more positively-worded coverage of ornamentals. Ultimately, we suggest that a narrow emphasis on a few highly covered ‘notorious’ invasive plant species, with lower and more positive coverage of ornamental introduced species, could send mixed messages and weaken public awareness of the threats of biological invasions. However, the generally strong linkages between public search interest and media coverage of invasive plants suggests ample opportunity to improve messaging and increase public awareness.