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In this paper, the authors present a of the journalistic coverage of five Canadian disasters, including the Alberta floods (2013), Fort McMurray wildfires (2016), Ottawa-Gatineau flooding (2017 and 2019), and the Ottawa-Gatineau tornadoes (2018). This study is part of a broader project focused on the representation of high-risk populations in disaster-media. In this paper the authors discuss how disaster-media portrays youth, and their contributions to , response and recovery. They inductively analyzed 259 articles across the five disasters to identify and document the patterns of discourse in news media around youth in a disaster context.

The findings reveal that the Canadian disaster news media framed youth using fives lenses:

1. the vulnerable status of youth;
2. youth as passive bystanders;
3. adult-centered narratives in media coverage of disasters: children as a burden on adults;
4. youth as active agents – jumping into adulthood; and
5. youth as a ‘legitimizing criteria’ in disaster response. The results of our study point to a need for a shift in the framing of youth in disasters to highlight their assets and actual/potential roles in disaster risk reduction efforts. Media can help to shift the narrative around youth by avoiding reductive, one-dimensional representation of youth as vulnerable victims.