The fifth national survey of broadcast meteorologists from George Mason University finds that large numbers of weathercasters informed their viewers about the local impacts of climate change.
WHY YOU SHOULD TAKE A LOOK:
The survey explores broadcast meteorologists’ views and activities related to reporting on climate change, as well as engagement with viewership, social media usage, the influence of news consultants, and longer-format science stories.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- 95% of weathercasters think climate change is happening.
- 49% of weathercasters are convinced that the climate change over the past 50 years has been mostly or entirely due to human activity.
- 63% of weathercasters are interested in reporting about local historical climate statistics, and about four in ten are interested in reporting about a range of other climate topics.
- 72% of weathercasters feel at least “somewhat confident” in their ability to report climate change topics on-air.
- The channels most commonly used to inform communities about local impacts of climate change were: their own social media accounts (49%); school visits (41%); community events (39%); on-air reporting (36%); station website (35%); and their station’s social media (32%) accounts.
- 40% weathercasters present an “opposing viewpoint” at least sometimes when reporting climate change information.
- 62% of weathercasters say the recent changes in the political climate in the United States will not alter how they present or plan to present climate change information to their viewers.
