firebreaking

English

Noun

firebreaking (uncountable)

1. The activity of creating firebreaks.
   • 1928, The Australian Forestry Journal - Volumes 11-14, page 8:

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

   • 1984, Graham Norman Harrington, Management of Australia's Rangelands, →ISBN, page 152:

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

   • 1997, Sustainable Agriculture - Volumes 9-12, page 62:

     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.

2. (public relations) To direct media attention at a second story in order to minimize the impact of an embarrassing story.
   • 2005, Bob Franklin, Key Concepts in Journalism Studies, →ISBN:

     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'.

   • 2014, Christian Schnee, Political Reputation Management: The Strategy Myth, →ISBN:

     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.

   • 2016, Alison Theaker, The Public Relations Handbook, →ISBN, page 56:

     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'.

Adjective

firebreaking (not comparable)

1. Acting as a firebreak.
   • 1955, Sudan Notes and Records - Volume 36, page 19:

     A chessboard of firebreaking hedges is, therefore, considered to be essential in any attempt to educate a population to protect their soil against bush fires.

   • 1966, John H. McAndrews, Postglacial History of Prairie, Savanna, and Forest in Northwestern Minnesota:

     Fire frequency lessened at the time of settlement because of the firebreaking effect of roads and fields, and the grubs grew into multiple-stemmed trees and shaded out the heliophious prairie herbs;

   • 1993, Bill N. McKnight, Biological pollution:

     For example, fire suppression on wildlands, and the firebreaking qualities of roads and other human developments have altered natural fire regimes over entire regions.