Reaching menbers of the general public by newspaper Kees Floor, The Netherlands EWOC; VI International Conference on School and Popular Meteorological and Oceanographic Education, Madrid, Spain, 7-11 juli 2003.

Abstract

One of the ways informing and educating the general public in weather topics is by means of the daily weather briefings that appear in many newspapers all over the world. In this way millions of people can be reached six days a week. The format of these briefings causes some limitations, as it has to fit in one or more of the four approaches described below.
First the weather briefing can be seen as a news report and can then be compared with the ways other items containing news from the own country or from abroad are written or presented. Usually however the weather briefing can be found on the service page in the newspaper, next to the weather graphics, but also next to radio and television programs, the times of high and low tide, the daily recipe and the foreign exchange rates. Therefore, following this second approach weather briefings perhaps should be compared with that service type of information. A third approach, we have to admit, is the weather briefing just as entertainment. And finally there is the educational approach, requiring a comparison with the articles in the science quire.
Finding a balance between these four approaches is the most important task of the weather journalist. If a greater exposure of weather is wanted than what is possible within the limitations of a weather briefing on the service pages, the weather journalist has to cross the boundaries of his own territory. Depending on current events contributions can be written for the pages with local news, domestic news foreign news and science news. Unfortunately commercial weather companies usually cannot do this as earnings of extra contributions are low when compared with the time needed to write.

Introduction
Information in the media about actual weather, weather forecasts and weather processes is usually very popular and highly appreciated. In the newspapers and on videotext written weather briefings are a major component of this type of news coverage. Forecasters who are writing these briefings may wish to contribute to the weather education and weather awareness of the general public. If so, they have to be aware of the role of the weather briefing according to the expectations of the editors and the readers. The limitations of the format of a standard weather briefing can be by-passed by expanding weather contributions to other columns of the newspaper.

Weather briefing as news report Weather briefings can be studied and judged from several points of view. Often these texts are interpreted as news report. From this perspective, they can be compared with other news, like a murder of a president, the making of a new government, continuation of a war, traffic accidents, sports and bank raids. The journalese requirements that are valid for news reports also apply to weather briefings: only facts that are newsworthy have to be mentioned. The most important news is in the first sentence. A standard structure of a weather briefing usually will result in texts that do not fulfil that requirement and therefore is not suitable. Besides the text should be written in a way that it can be cut short after any sentence. The lay-out of this type of weather briefing is similar to that of other news items: a headline, a credit line, the dateline with the post of the journalist and occasionally the day of the week. An important aspect of news reports is that they are competing with each other for a place in the newspaper: space is limited and the most important news goes first. The news dimension of a weather briefing has been underestimated in the past, but gets more and more attention nowadays.

Weather briefing as service information As weather briefings usually are published every day and therefore in fact do not compete with other 'hot news', it is clear that they cannot be interpreted as merely news reports. Because they are published daily they also have something in common with the radio- and TV-program guide, the cartoons, the stock market news, the crossword puzzles and the recipes. Very often the weather briefings can be found, together with the weather map and the weather reports, on the service information page. A service report requires a different approach from a news report. Continuity is very important: it should be there every day. The reader must be sure that he can easily find also today the information he is looking for and that has always been on that same place. He will profit most of a standard structure and a standard order of the text to enable him to know where to look for the information wanted. A service report is quite different than a news report. Just as TV programs that are not interesting still do appear in the newspaper, weather that is not interesting cannot be omitted just like that. And if there is little change in the weather situation, little change is required in the text of the weather briefings.

Compare this with stable stock rates that are repeated every day and presented in the same manner as the day before.
I do not want to suggest that weather briefings should be written in a dull manner, but if the briefings differ and the weather does not people might misunderstand what is written.

Weather briefing as entertainment
If we like it or not, weather briefings can be seen as a kind of entertainment, too. Many readers like malicious delight. They have fun when they can skate at home and read in the newspaper that their neighbours in the Alps are lacking snow for skiing. The same is true when it is dry, sunny and warm in Holland. while a colleague on holiday in Southern France is watching heavy showers extinguishing forest fires. Besides many people claim they are doing their own job better than the weathermen, who are usually 'completely wide of the mark' and 'are confronted with huge claims by mislaid users'. Furthermore the general public might be keen on weather lore, even if it has proven to be unreliable.

Weather briefing as popular science Apart from the aspects of news report, service report and entertainment, there is another aspect that should be mentioned: the educational function. The weather briefings are used to explain the weather developments, to elucidate used jargon or to foster understanding of the difficult task and role of the forecaster. The text might as well be published on the newspaper page with science news and backgrounds. In this type of text one also can put in perspective the weather events that are wrongfully presented as extreme or unprecedented in exaggerating reports of other news sources. In these situations knowledge of climatology is as important as knowledge of synoptic weather.

Restrictions and limitations
In summary, weather briefings in the newspapers have in common some characteristics with news reports, service reports, entertaining articles and popular scientific contributions. Finding a balance between these four perspectives is the most important task of the weather journalist. We, as participants of this conference, have our main interest in the educational function; we want to explain the weather to our readers, members of the general public, and we try to gain interest in the wonders of the weather.
The weather briefing perhaps gives us some possibilities to reach that goal, but there are lots of restrictions. For instance: explaining the weather is no 'news', so it might be skipped in a news report. Also giving backgrounds of the weather is not a 'service' to the reader, who only wants to know if the weather permits him to do the things he planned to do. And finally, many members of the general public will not consider a weather explanation to be entertainment at all. Therefore the weather briefing is only of limited use to get readers involved in meteorology.

Crossing the boundaries Additional opportunities for popular education in meteorology by newspapers can be found in the other columns. Permanent contributors of daily briefings who are known to the editorial staff of a newspaper usually can write for other pages of the newspaper more easily than others. The areas where contributions are welcome are domestic news, foreign news and pages with popular science features. It is very important to realise that articles are only welcome if the topic is newsworthy. In some situations the weather forecast itself is news. This can be the case just before important events like a solar eclipse, an important event like the 'Elfstedentocht', a 200 km skating event in The Netherlands, New Years Eve, a Bank Holiday, a day with national elections etc. In addition one can write about tropical cyclones, lake effect snow, dust storms, cévenol, the theme of WMO's World Meteorological Day, the relation between extreme weather and climate change or any other weather or climate topic if in the news at that very moment. In some occasions also other reasons for writing about a topic might do, e.g anniversaries: 50 years of weather satellites, 60 years of numerical weather prediction, 90 years polar front theory, a battle influenced by the weather 200 years ago and so on. These topics can also be discussed in popular scientific journals that are published weekly or monthly. The preparation of these type of articles takes more time than the standard production of a regular weather briefing. Therefore commercial weather bureaus usually cannot provide these additional contributions and the 'market' is free for others.

Conclusions
Weather briefings can play a role in the weather education of the general public and the development of its weather awareness. However one can do a better job if, following the actual news, additional contributions can be offered to other columns of the newspaper.