The article is about hurricane Irene's influence on the Weather Channel sky rocketing rating's across news networks such as Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. As hurricane Irene crawled up the East Coast delivering mass rain showers and causing land to fall, residents in affected areas went to Weather Channel for information about the approaching storm. On Saturday, according to Nielsen the channel's ratings peaked capturing a record audience of 4 million viewers, surpasssing the previous record of 3.93 million set by hurricane Katrina. Throughout the weekend the Weather Channel's rating continued to spike across all the networks.
I thought this was interesting because most of news that is covered by networks is ususally carrying negative tones, such as death, distruction, and violence. Theses themes say alot about the mentality of the media and its audience who are both attracted and interested in these negative storys. Although, I do realize that this was a big story and affected the entire East Coast and people need to be informed to make the right decisions.
I also found this article interesting because technology is moving media towards mobile devices and the Internet, but this article showes that television still gathers a large audience. Television and the Weather Channel are both important mediums for news and seem to remain extremely valuable forms of media.
Such great points, Matt--thanks! It is interesting to think about the Weather Channel at all--how huge can their ratings ever truly be, except in times like this? I saw lots of people saying on Twitter and FB that they wished the channel had even MORE coverage, because people were hungry for information whether they were in the path of the storm or not!
ReplyDeleteYou're right, too, that it's almost surprising how many viewers the Weather Channel had, when you consider the role of social media and the internet. It makes you wonder who was watching the channel and why--was it folks who just don't use the internet as much? Or was it more comforting to have this information delivered as a narrative rather than just images and numbers?