A Survey for Weather Communicators: Twitter and Information Channel Preferences

Abstract

AbstractIt has been almost a decade since researchers assessed user preferences in gathering weather information. Maturing channels and increasingly mobile audiences necessitate the need for understanding what channels people use for weather information, what information people want, and how they react to specific content?especially potentially life-saving warnings. Furthermore, geographically compartmentalizing this information will allow communication strategies to be tailored to a more localized audience. As an initiative to this effort, a survey of digitally connected Louisianians found different channel preferences than were found in previous studies. Beyond this study, future research should seek to identify regional preferences since the last broad study on this topic nearly 10 years ago. In the survey, information preferences are collected with Twitter as the focal point, but other channels are included as choices to assess overall user preference. As older channels such as television decline in preference, mobile telephone applications are disrupting previous literature by quickly gaining popularity while studies on their utility remain in short supply. Results show that user channel preferences do not necessarily align with those that best serve weather communication efforts. Facebook, a channel notoriously problematic from a chronology standpoint, is favored by many respondents. On Twitter, there is a disconnect in the type of information respondents report wanting and what type of information generates a response. Interest in warning messages was not coincident with the threat posed by that specific type of weather. The format?wording and construction?of warning messages that generated the most response on Twitter does not align with extensive literature on proper risk communication.