scholarly journals Identifying community values related to heat: recommendations for forecast and health risk communication

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Lambrecht ◽  
Benjamin J. Hatchett ◽  
Kristin VanderMolen ◽  
Bianca Feldkircher
Keyword(s):  
Risk Communication ◽  
Protective Action ◽  
Community Values ◽  
The Public ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
High Impact Weather ◽  
Heat Risk ◽  
The U.S

Abstract. Effective communication of heat risk to public audiences is critical to promoting behavioral changes that reduce susceptibility to heat-related illness. The U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) provides heat-related information to the public using social media platforms such as Facebook. We applied a novel rhetorical framework to evaluate five years (2015–2019) of public responses to NWS heat-related Facebook posts for the Phoenix (Arizona) County Warning Area, one of the hottest regions in North America and the tenth largest metropolitan area in the U.S., to identify “commonplaces” or community norms, beliefs, and values that may present challenges to the effectiveness of heat risk communication. We found two key commonplaces: 1) the normalization of heat, and 2) heat as a marker of community identify. These commonplaces imply that local audiences may be resistant to behavioral change, but they can also be harnessed in an effort to promote protective action. We also found that public responses to NWS posts declined over the heat season, further suggesting the normalization of heat and highlighting the need to maintain engagement. This work provides a readily generalizable framework for other messengers of high-impact weather events to improve the effectiveness of their communication with receiver audiences.

scholarly journals Identifying community values related to heat: recommendations for forecast and health risk communication

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-525
Author(s):  
Kathryn Lambrecht ◽  
Benjamin J. Hatchett ◽  
Kristin VanderMolen ◽  
Bianca Feldkircher
Keyword(s):  
Risk Communication ◽  
Protective Action ◽  
Community Identity ◽  
Community Values ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
High Impact Weather ◽  
Heat Risk ◽  
The U.S

Abstract. Effective communication of heat risk to public audiences is critical for promoting behavioral changes that reduce susceptibility to heat-related illness. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS) provides heat-related information to the public using social media platforms such as Facebook. We applied a novel rhetorical framework to evaluate 5 years (2015–2019) of public responses to heat-related Facebook posts from the NWS office in Phoenix (Arizona) to identify “commonplaces” or community norms, beliefs, and values that may present challenges to the effectiveness of heat risk communication. Phoenix is in one of the hottest regions in North America and is the 10th-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. We found the following two key commonplaces: (1) the normalization of heat and (2) heat as a marker of community identity. These commonplaces imply that local audiences may be resistant to behavioral change, but they can also be harnessed in an effort to promote protective action. We also found that public responses to NWS posts declined over the heat season, further suggesting the normalization of heat and highlighting the need to maintain engagement. This work provides a readily generalizable framework for other messengers of high-impact weather events to improve the effectiveness of their communication with receiver audiences.

scholarly journals Perception and Comprehension of the Extended Forecast Graphic: A Survey of Broadcast Meteorologists and the Public

2020 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. E221-E236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob R. Reed ◽  
Jason C. Senkbeil
Keyword(s):  
Risk Communication ◽  
Low Temperatures ◽  
General Public ◽  
Weather Forecast ◽  
The Public ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Public Data ◽  
Adverse Weather ◽  
High And Low Temperatures ◽  
Probability Of Precipitation

Abstract There have been multiple efforts in recent years to simplify visual weather forecast products, with the goal of more efficient risk communication for the general public. Many meteorological forecast products, such as the cone of uncertainty, storm surge graphics, warning polygons, and Storm Prediction Center (SPC) convective outlooks, have created varying levels of public confusion resulting in revisions, modifications, and improvements. However, the perception and comprehension of private weather graphics produced by television stations has been largely overlooked in peer-reviewed research. The goal of this study is to explore how the extended forecast graphic, more commonly known as the 7, 10 day, etc., is utilized by broadcasters and understood by the public. Data were gathered from surveys with the general public and also from broadcast meteorologists. Results suggest this graphic is a source of confusion and highlights a disconnect between the meteorologists producing the graphic and the content prioritized by their audiences. Specifically, timing and intensity of any precipitation or adverse weather events are the two most important variables to consider from the viewpoint of the public. These variables are generally absent from the extended forecast graphic, thus forcing the public to draw their own conclusions, which may differ from what the meteorologist intends to convey. Other results suggest the placement of forecast high and low temperatures, use of probability of precipitation, icon inconsistency, and length of time the graphic is shown also contribute to public confusion and misunderstanding.

scholarly journals Improving Communication of Uncertainty and Risk of High-Impact Weather Through Innovative Forecaster Workshops

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Brian A. Colle ◽  
Rosemary Auld ◽  
Kenneth Johnson ◽  
Christine O’Connell ◽  
Temis G. Taylor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Services ◽  
High Impact ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Public ◽  
Probabilistic Information ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Tv Media ◽  
High Impact Weather ◽  
Oral Presentations

AbstractIt is challenging to communicate uncertainty for high-impact weather events to the public and decision makers. As a result, there is an increased emphasis and training within the National Weather Service (NWS) for “impact-based decision support.” A Collaborative Science, Technology, And Research (CSTAR) project led by Stony Brook University (SBU) in collaboration with the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, several NWS forecast offices, and NWS operational centers held two workshops at SBU on effective forecast communication of probabilistic information for high-impact weather. Trainers in two 1.5-day workshops helped 15-20 forecasters learn to distill their messages, engage audiences, and more effectively communicate risk and uncertainty to decision makers, media, and the general public. The novel aspect of the first workshop focused on using improvisational techniques to connect with audiences along with exercises to improve communication skills using short, clear, conversational statements. The same forecasters participated in the second workshop, which focused on matching messages to intended audiences and stakeholder interaction. Using a recent high-impact weather event, representatives in emergency management, TV media, departments of transportation, and emergency services provided feedback on the forecaster oral presentations (2-3 minute) and a visual slide. This article describes our innovative workshop approach, illustrates some of the techniques used, and highlights participant feedback.

Online Communication by Emergency Responders during Crisis Events

2018 ◽  
pp. 149-173
Author(s):  
Emma S. Spiro
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Computational Techniques ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
The Public ◽  
Emergency Responders ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Critical Components

Social media have become critical components of all phases of crisis management, including preparedness, response, and recovery. Numerous recent events have demonstrated that during extreme occurrences (such as natural hazards, civil unrest, and domestic terrorist attacks), social media platforms are appropriated for response activities, providing new infrastructure for official responders to disseminate event-related information, interact with members of the public, and monitor public opinion. Emergency responders recognize the potential of social media platforms and actively use these technologies to share information and connect with constituents; however, many questions remain about the effectiveness of social media platforms in reaching members of the public during times of crisis. Moreover, there is a strong tendency for research to focus on the behavior of the public rather than on that of official emergency responders. This chapter reviews prior and ongoing work that contributes to our understanding of usage practices and the effectiveness of networked online communication during times of crisis. In particular, it focuses on empirically driven research that utilizes large-scale data sets of behavioral traces captured from social media platforms. Together this body of work demonstrates how computational techniques combined with rich, curated data sets can be used to explore information and communication behaviors in online networks.

scholarly journals Achieving Accuracy through Ambiguity: the Interactivity of Risk Communication in Severe Weather Events

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 587-623
Author(s):  
Melissa Bica ◽  
Joy Weinberg ◽  
Leysia Palen
Keyword(s):  
Risk Communication ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
The Us ◽  
Information Products ◽  
Fundamental Tension ◽  
Risk Representation

Abstract Risks associated with natural hazards such as hurricanes are increasingly communicated on social media. For hurricane risk communication, visual information products—graphics—generated by meteorologists and scientists at weather agencies portray forecasts and atmospheric conditions and are offered to parsimoniously convey predictions of severe storms. This research considers risk interactivity by examining a particular hurricane graphic which has shown in previous research to have a distinctive diffusion signature: the ‘spaghetti plot’, which contains multiple discrete lines depicting a storm’s possible path. We first analyzed a large dataset of microblog interactions around spaghetti plots between members of the public and authoritative weather sources within the US during the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season. We then conducted interviews with a sample of the weather authorities after preliminary findings sketched the role that experts have in such communications. Findings describe how people make sense of risk dialogically over graphics, and show the presence of a fundamental tension in risk communication between accuracy and ambiguity. The interactive effort combats the unintended declarative quality of the graphical risk representation through communicative acts that maintain a hazard’s inherent ambiguity until risk can be foreclosed. We consider theoretical and practice-based implications of the limits and potentials of graphical risk representations and of widely diffused scientific communication, and offer reasons we need CSCW attention paid to the larger enterprise of risk communication.

scholarly journals Wind Profilers to Aid with Monitoring and Forecasting of High-Impact Weather in the Southeastern and Western United States

2015 ◽  
Vol 96 (12) ◽  
pp. 2039-2043 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen B. White ◽  
Kelly M. Mahoney ◽  
Robert Cifelli ◽  
Clark W. King
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
High Impact ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Atmospheric Rivers ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Hurricane Season ◽  
Monitoring And Forecasting ◽  
High Impact Weather ◽  
The U.S

Abstract With funding provided by the 2012 Disaster Relief Act (Sandy Supplemental), NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory Physical Sciences Division has installed three Doppler wind-profiling radars and surface meteorology towers along the U.S. Gulf and southeast coasts to help detect and monitor landfalling tropical storms and other high-impact weather events. This same combination of instruments has been used to monitor landfalling atmospheric rivers on the U.S. West Coast. For this reason, we refer to the whole collection of instruments at each site as an Atmospheric River Observatory (ARO). These three new AROs supported by the Sandy Supplemental complement a fourth ARO deployed in coastal North Carolina as part of NOAA’s Hydrometeorology Testbed Southeast Pilot Study. These four AROs were installed in time to capture the 2014 hurricane season and will be operated through the 2015 hurricane season.

scholarly journals Connecting the Dots: A Communications Model of the North Texas Integrated Warning Team during the 15 May 2013 Tornado Outbreak

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Cavanaugh ◽  
Melissa Huffman ◽  
Jennifer Dunn ◽  
Mark Fox
Keyword(s):  
Direct Result ◽  
North Texas ◽  
The Public ◽  
Weather Information ◽  
The North ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Central Texas ◽  
High Impact Weather ◽  
Connecting The Dots ◽  
Hazardous Weather

Abstract On 15 May 2013, 19 tornadoes occurred across north and central Texas, killing 6, injuring over 50, and causing more than $100 million in property damage. The majority of the impacts to life and property were the direct result of category-3 and category-4 enhanced Fujita scale (EF-3 and EF-4) tornadoes that affected the communities of Cleburne and Granbury, Texas. This study focuses on an examination of the north Texas integrated warning team (IWT) communications through a thorough analysis of interactions between IWT members during this event. Communications from all members of the IWT were collected and organized so that a quantitative analysis of the IWT communications network could be performed. The results of this analysis were used to identify strengths and weaknesses of current IWT communications to improve the consistency of hazardous weather messaging for future high-impact weather events. The results also show how effectively communicating within an IWT leads not only to more consistent messaging but also to broader dissemination of hazardous weather information to the public. The analysis techniques outlined in this study could serve as a model for comprehensive studies of IWTs across the country.

scholarly journals Not Just for Dancing? A Content Analysis of Concussion and Head Injury Videos on TikTok

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peyton N. Carter ◽  
Eric E. Hall ◽  
Caroline J. Ketcham ◽  
Osman H. Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Head Injury ◽  
Search Strategy ◽  
Sports Injuries ◽  
Healthcare Organizations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Concussion Education

Social media platforms are an accessible and increasingly used way for the public to gather healthcare-related information, including on sports injuries. “TikTok” is currently one of the fastest-growing social media platforms worldwide, and it is especially popular amongst adolescents and young adults. The widespread use and popularity of TikTok suggests that this platform has potential to be a source for healthcare information for younger individuals. The aim of this study was to gain a preliminary understanding of the concussion/head injury-related information on TikTok, and to gauge if TikTok could serve as a platform for concussion education. This exploratory study used a systematic search strategy to understand more about how concussion is being portrayed through TikTok videos. Using the keywords “concussion” and “head injury,” 200 videos were downloaded from TikTok and 43 videos were excluded. Of the 92 videos retrieved using the keyword “concussion,” 95% (n = 88) had more than 100,000 views and 6% (n = 10) had been viewed more than 10 million times. Over half, 54% (n = 50) of the “concussion” videos depicted individuals “playing around” and getting hit in the head, whilst only 1% (n = 1) of the TikTok videos were categorized as “explaining concussion facts.” The large numbers of views of concussion-related TikTok videos demonstrates the popularity of this platform and indicates that healthcare organizations should consider TikTok as a potential means for concussion education amongst younger individuals.

Kim Kardashian: the Leader of the Influencers

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laila Fariha Zein ◽  
Adib Rifqi Setiawan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
The United States ◽  
Armenian Genocide ◽  
The Public ◽  
Self Defense ◽  
Global Commerce ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
International Issues ◽  
Global Influence

In today’s world, it is easier and easier to stay connected with people who are halfway across the world. Social media and a globalizing economy have created new methods of business, trade and socialization resulting in vast amounts of communication and effecting global commerce. Like her or hate her, Kimberly Noel Kardashian West as known as Kim Kardashian has capitalized on social media platforms and the globalizing economy. Kim is known for two things: famous for doing nothing and infamous for a sex tape. But Kim has not let those things define her. With over 105 million Instagram followers and 57 million Twitter followers, Kim has become a major global influence. Kim has travelled around the world, utilizing the success she has had on social media to teach make-up master classes with professional make-up artist, Mario Dedivanovic. She owns or has licensed several different businesses including: an emoji app, a personal app, a gaming app, a cosmetics line, and a fragrance line. Not to be forgotten, the Kardashian family show, ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’ has been on the air for ten years with Kim at the forefront. Kim also has three books: ‘Kardashian Konfidential’, ‘Dollhouse’, and ‘Selfish’. With her rising social media following, Kim has used the platforms to show her support for politicians and causes, particularly, recognition of the Armenian genocide. Kim also recently spoke at the Forbes’ women’s summit. Following the summit, Kim tweeted out her support for a recent movement on Twitter, #freeCyntoiaBrown which advocated for a young woman who claimed to have shot and killed the man who held her captive as a teenage sex slave in self-defense. Kim had her own personal lawyers help out Cyntoia on her case. Kim has also moved beyond advocating for issues within the confines of the United States. As mentioned earlier, she is known for advocating for recognition of the Armenian genocide. In the last two years, her show has made it a point to address the Armenian situation as it was then and as it is now. Kim has been recognized as a global influencer by others across the wordl. We believe Kim has become the same as political leaders when it comes to influencing the public. Kim’s story reveals that the new reality creates a perfect opportunity for mass disturbances or for initiating mass support or mass disapproval. Although Kim is typically viewed for her significance to pop culture, Kim’s business and social media following have placed her deep into the mix of international commerce. As her businesses continue to grow and thrive, we may see more of her influence on international issues and an increase in the commerce from which her businesses benefit.

Opportunities for Qualitative Analysis of Social Media Platforms in Dietetic Research and Practice

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Meghan Lynch ◽  
Irena Knezevic ◽  
Kennedy Laborde Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Online News ◽  
News Article ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
The Public ◽  
Related Data ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Article Comment

To date, most qualitative knowledge about individual eating patterns and the food environment has been derived from traditional data collection methods, such as interviews, focus groups, and observations. However, there currently exists a large source of nutrition-related data in social media discussions that have the potential to provide opportunities to improve dietetic research and practice. Qualitative social media discussion analysis offers a new tool for dietetic researchers and practitioners to gather insights into how the public discusses various nutrition-related topics. We first consider how social media discussion data come with significant advantages including low-cost access to timely ways to gather insights from the public, while also cautioning that social media data have limitations (e.g., difficulty verifying demographic information). We then outline 3 types of social media discussion platforms in particular: (i) online news article comment sections, (ii) food and nutrition blogs, and (iii) discussion forums. We discuss how each different type of social media offers unique insights and provide a specific example from our own research using each platform. We contend that social media discussions can contribute positively to dietetic research and practice.

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