Now some national weather organizations---including the National Weather Service-- are getting into the act, a "smackdown" of sorts over the use of entertaining but scienticially non-existant words like "snowicain".
Sorry, but news and all of its parts is part entertainment, part show business. That doesn't make the information any less important, or critical in the event of severe weather. Let the TV folks use their own language...as long as they are as accurate as possible in predicting what's going to happen!
[*Folks like Kait Parker and Matt Tanner at CBS-8 are in fact certified meteorologists, got their degrees in weather science. At 42 in Birmingham, I was just telling folks what the National Weather Service forecast indicated, though we did have an expert on standby during severe weather.]
[PLUS: NY Times story asking which of the "Big Three" TV Nets will be the first to abandon a nightly newscast.]
[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]
A not-so-subtle plug for the weather reports on WAKA.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I have to disagree. Words like "storminess" and "weather activity" are meaningless.
I don't mind the entertainment aspect, especially the graphics, as long as we get the info.
I've never cared for teevee wx. I'd rather see the radar myself.
ReplyDeleteSince I volunteer with the MadCo EMA with RACES/ARES, we're automatically set up in cooperation with NOAA & NWS.
Teevee weather, like other aspects of the programming, is all about "eyes on the set" which translates into the ability to have higher advertising prices, and therefore increased profits. "Quality" has little, if anything, to do with it. It's all about marketing.
WSB, not all of us have access to the NOAA radars, even though my daughter works for NOAA headquarters in Silver Spring MD.
ReplyDeleteTim, what's with those little weather warnings that show Alabama more-or-less of a square rather than a rectangle? I think they include counties in eastern Mississippi.