Meaning of firebreaking | Babel Free

Definitions

1. The activity of creating firebreaks.
   uncountable
2. To direct media attention at a second story in order to minimize the impact of an embarrassing story.
   uncountable

Examples

“Generally, the forest, owing to the flatness of the country, lends itself to ideal subdivision into compartments and cheap firebreaking by horse-drawn graders.”

“The usual method of firebreaking is to grade two parallel lines and burn the intervening vegetation.”

“The meat goats are grazed in organic olive orchards, and are also used in three counties for fuel load reduction in ponderosa pine plantations, firebreaking in forests and land cleaning.”

“Below the line spin involves setting and driving the news agenda, but also 'firebreaking' (deliberately constructing a story to divert journalists away from an embarrassing story, e.g., Campbell's leak to the Sunday Times that MI6 was investigating Chris Patten when the story of Robin Cook's affair broke) or 'stoking the fire' (the precise opposite of firebreaking by gathering and providing information to sustain a story which an opponent is finding embarrassing, e.g. Labour spin doctors' efforts to fuel the story of rifts between John Major and the anti-Europeans in the Conservative Party) or 'undermining a personality' (e.g. the off-the-record description of Gordon Brown as 'psychologically flawed', Harriet Harman as 'incapable of joined-up thinking', while a 'senior government aide' suggested that Mo Mowlam's illness had left her 'without the intellectual rigour for her job' with another anonymous 'adviser' claiming to be 'dismayed at her erratic behaviour'.”

“Gaber (2000, p. 512) has explored and listed distinct techniques deployed by communications managers to cajole journalists and set the agenda, ranging from efforts to plant a story, to activities of' 'firebreaking' aiming to divert the media's attention from a potentially negative story.”

“Below the line activities include 'staying on message (ensuring a consistent line is taken)...setting and driving the news agenda (ensuring that government receives coverage on its terms)...kite flying (testing out reaction to a policy before a formal announcement)' and 'firebreaking'.”

CEFR level