D3169: The insect apocalypse: Representation bias in media

In recent years, "The Insect Apocalypse" has emerged as a term used to describe the many challenges insects are facing, ranging between biodiversity loss, habitat degradation, climate change, pesticide use, and more. This type of rhetoric shows up in news reporting and popular media, with the New York Times declaring the arrival of the insect apocalypse in 2018. In this study, we assessed reporting bias across various news outlets with a popular following. We analyzed a total of five articles published between 2018 and 2022. In these articles, we looked at the representation of insects: i.e., which species were represented in individual articles and which species overlapped between articles. Following our analysis, we discuss the implications of the term "The Insect Apocalypse" and insect representation in popular media. While “The Insect Apocalypse” reflects research findings on insect decline in recent years, the term itself may lose other nuances such as biodiversity or ecology. Consequently, our analysis has implications for the future of science communication within entomology.