Abstract
Broadcast meteorologists are in a position to convey knowledge about climate change to the public. These media professionals make deliberate choices about what information to omit or present to their audiences. Interviews with broadcast meteorologists revealed a wide range of attitudes about conveying climate science to their viewers. Three significant concerns emerged from conversations with participants: on-air time constraints are non-negotiable, pressure to be a “popular” personality is constant, and there is an enduring apprehension about taking a position associated with a perceived controversial topic or political viewpoint. Discomfort with these constraints affects the content choices of broadcast meteorologists who might otherwise take a stand representing the scientific consensus on climate change.
References
Andregg WL, Prall JW, Harold J, Schneider SH (2010) Expert credibility in climate change. Proc Natl Acad Sci 107(27):12107–12109
Bloodhart B, Maibach E, Myers T, Zhao X (2015) Local climate experts: the influence of local TV weather information on climate change perceptions. PLoS ONE 10(11):e0141526
Boykoff MT, McNatt MB, Goodman MK (2015) The cultural politics of climate change news coverage around the world. In: The Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication, p 221
Braun V, Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qual Res Psychol 3(2):77–101
Center for Research on Environmental Decisions and ecoAmerica (2014) Connecting on climate: a guide to effective climate change communication. The Earth Institute, Columbia University, Copyright © December 2014 by The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York and ecoAmerica
Cook J, Jacobs P (2014) Scientists are from Mars, laypeople are from Venus: an evidence-based rationale for communicating the consensus on climate. Reports of the National Center for Science Education, vol 34(6)
Cook J, Nuccitelli D, Green SA, Richardson M, Winkler B, Painting R, Way R, Jacobs P, Skuce A (2013) Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature. Environ Res Lett 8:024024
Corner A, Whitmarsh L, Xenias D (2012) Uncertainty, scepticism and attitudes towards climate change: biased assimilation and attitude polarisation. Clim Change 114(3–4):463–478
Daniels GL, Loggins G (2010) Data, Doppler, or depth of knowledge: how do television stations differentiate local weather? Atlantic J Commun 18(1):22–35
Davenport C (2014) Using weathercasters to deliver a climate change message. New York Times, 6 May 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/us/politics/using-weathercasters-to-deliver-a-climate-change-message.html?_r=0. Accessed 28 Apr 2016
Davie WR, Auter PJ, Dinu LF (2006) Identifying the goals of weather instruction: toward a model approach for broadcast meteorology. Journalism Mass Commun Educ 61(2):149–164
Doherty R, Barnhurst KG (2009) Controlling nature: weathercasts on local television news. J Broadcast Electron Media 53(2):211–226
Egan PJ, Mullin M (2012) Turning personal experience into political attitudes: the effect of local weather on Americans’ perceptions about global warming. J Polit 74(03):796–809
Hamilton LC (2011) Do you believe the climate is changing? Answers from new survey research. Carsey School of Public Policy, University of New Hampshire, Durham, USA.
Harlen W (ed) (2010) Principles and big ideas of science education. Association for Science Education, Ashford Colour Press Ltd., UK
Hobson K, Niemeyer S (2012) “What sceptics believe”: the effects of information and deliberation on climate change scepticism. Publ Underst Sci. doi:10.1177/0963662511430459
IPCC (2014) Climate change 2014: synthesis report. Contribution of working groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team]. In: Pachauri RK, Meyer, LA (eds) IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151 pp
Kalhoefer K, Robbins D, Seifter A (2016) How broadcast networks covered climate change in 2015: an analysis of nightly news and sunday shows. Media Matters for America, Washington, DC
Leiserowitz A (2007) Communicating the risks of global warming: American risk perceptions, affective images and interpretive communities. In Moser S, Dilling L (eds) Creating a climate for change: communicating climate change and facilitating social change. Cambridge University Press, U.K.
Maibach E, Wilson K, Witte J (2010) A national survey of television meteorologists about climate change: preliminary finds. Center for Climate Change Communication
Moser SC (2016) Reflections on climate change communication research and practice in the second decade of the 21st century: what more is there to say? Wiley Interdisc Rev Clim Change 7(3):345–369
Moser SC, Dilling L (2011) Communicating climate change: closing the science-action gap. In: The Oxford handbook of climate change and society. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 161–174
Myers TA, Nisbet MC, Maibach EW, Leiserowitz AA (2012) A public health frame arouses hopeful emotions about climate change. Clim Change 113(3–4):1105–1112
Myers TA, Maibach EW, Roser-Renouf C, Akerlof K, Leiserowitz AA (2013) The relationship between personal experience and belief in the reality of global warming. Nat Clim Change 3(4):343–347
Perryman N, Theiss S (2014) “Weather girls” on the big screen: stereotypes, sex appeal, and science. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 95(3):347–356
Perse EM (1990) Media involvement and local news effects. J Broadcast Electron Media 34(1):17–36. doi:10.1080/08838159009386723
Perse EM, Rubin RB (1989) Attribution in social and parasocial relationships. Commun Res 16(1):59–77
Peters-Burton E, Schweizer V, Cobb S, Maibach E (2014) Weathercaster views on informal climate education: similarities and differences according to climate change attitudes. J Geosci Educ 62(3):431–444
PEW Research Center (2010) Obama more popular abroad than at home: global image of U.S. continues to benefit. PEW Research Center: PEW Global Attitudes Project. From: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1630/obama-more-popular-abroad-global-american-imagebenefit-22-nation-global-survey
Posegate A (2008) Station scientists: beyond the daily forecast. Weatherwise 61(6):20–25
Rosen J (1989) Don’t need a weatherman? Harper’s Magazine, 35, April, pp 35–36
Saad L, Jones JM (2016) U.S. concern about global warming at eight-year high. Retrieved from Gallop website http://www.gallup.com/poll/190010/concern-global-warming-eight-year-high.aspx?g_source=us%20concern%20about%20global%20warming%20at%208%20year%20high&g_medium=search&g_campaign=tiles
Sandman PM (1994) Mass media and environmental risk: seven principles. Risk Health Saf Environ 5, 251
Scruggs L, Benegal S (2012) Declining public concern about climate change: can we blame the great recession? Glob Environ Change 22(2):505–515
Shome D, Marx S, Appelt K, Arora P, Balstad R, Broad K, Leiserowitz A (2009) The psychology of climate change communication: a guide for scientists, journalists, educators, political aides, and the interested public. CRED Columbia University, New York, p 48
Smith J (2016) Weathercasters hone climate change reporting skills [Press release]. Retrieved from https://www2.ucar.edu. Accessed 28 Apr 2016
Stanfield K (2014) Why should they comment? Understanding local television news viewers motivation for commenting on stations’ Facebook pages. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Missouri—Columbia, Columbia, Missouri
Swim J, Clayton S, Doherty T, Gifford R, Howard G, Reser J, Weber E (2009) Psychology and global climate change: addressing a multi-faceted phenomenon and set of challenges. A report by the American Psychological Association’s task force on the interface between psychology and global climate change. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC
Szymanski DW, Meldrum H, Davis PT, Oches EA, Foley K, Doner LA (2014) Views of broadcast meteorologists on climate change communication with their audiences. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, vol 46, no 6
Thompson VK (2013) Ethical ambivalence in local television weathercasting: a Rossian analysis. Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, p 178
Van der Linden S (2014) Towards a new model for communicating climate change. In Cohen S, Higham J, Peeters P, Gössling S (eds) Understanding and governing sustainable tourism mobility: psychological and behavioural approaches. Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, Florence, Kentucky, pp 243–275
Vannini P, Mccright AM (2007) Technologies of the sky: a socio-semiotic and critical analysis of televised weather discourse. Crit Discourse Stud 4(1):49–74
Wibeck V (2014) Enhancing learning, communication and public engagement about climate change—some lessons from recent literature. Environ Educ Res 20(3):387–411
Wilson KM (2000) Communicating climate change through the media. Environ Risks Media, 201–217
Wilson K (2006) Seals of (dis) approval: television broadcast meteorologists debate the value of voluntary credentials. National Weather Dig 30:100–107
Wilson K (2008) Television weathercasters as potentially prominent science communicators. Publ Underst Sci 17(1):73–87
Wilson K (2009) Opportunities and obstacles for television broadcast meteorologists to report on climate change. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 90(10):1457–1465
Wilson KM (2012) Ideology trumps meteorology: why many television broadcast meteorologists remain unconvinced of human-caused global warming. Electronic News 6(4):208–228
Zhao X, Maibach E, Gandy J, Witte J, Cullen H, Klinger BA, Pyle A (2014) Climate change education through TV weathercasts: results of a field experiment. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 95(1):117–130
Acknowledgements
We appreciate that this research was supported by a US National Science Foundation Grant 12-22521 through the Advances in Informal STEM Education program. We also thank our Bentley University undergraduate student Kathryn Foley for assistance in multiple ways throughout our NSF-funded project.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Meldrum, H., Szymanski, D., Oches, E.A., Thompson Davis, P. (2017). Speaking Out or Staying Quiet on Climate Change: Broadcast Meteorologists Influenced by the Need to Be Pithy, Popular and Politically Cautious. In: Leal Filho, W., Keenan, J. (eds) Climate Change Adaptation in North America. Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53742-9_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53742-9_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-53741-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-53742-9
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)