Constituting safety in hunter’s education: An analysis of safety messages in Texas hunter’s training discourse

Risk communication includes safety messages to reduce the likelihood of hazard and increase the likelihood of reliability. Hunter’s education in the state of Texas uses safety messages to reduce fatal or injurious incidents and to promote a positive image of hunting as a safe, leisure sport. Analysis of Texas’ hunters education training materials and messages related to safety reveals that safety messages construct an image of hunters as practicing safety first, conservationists, ethical, law abiding, and other-oriented. Given Texas safety record, much is to be learned about safety messaging that adopts a positive or ideal image that the trainee identifies.