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Global Guide to Tropical Cyclone Forecasting:
CHAPTER 6: OPERATIONAL STRATEGY

6.6 INTERACTING WITH THE MEDIA

Good tropical cyclone forecasters have a sound scientific knowledge of meteorology combined with experience, but "complete" tropical cyclone forecasters are also excellent communicators. People will react to a warning only if they believe that the information they are hearing is true. A good communicator will give the cyclone warning this credibility factor.

There are two major benefits of forecasters interacting directly with the media. Firstly this helps to curtail misinterpretations of a warning message (which is so prone to happen given the limited meteorological background of most broadcasters). Also, it establishes a direct link between the forecaster and the affected community.

Rather than leave good communication to chance, senior staff in the TCWC should be groomed in media presentation. The trend for forecaster interaction with the media is increasing, particularly for significant weather events, and it is very important that the forecaster is prepared for it when it happens.

A tropical cyclone event is a high profile news story and the media these days (television in particular) attempt to capture the excitement/tension of a TCWC in operation. To achieve this they need to have images of the TCWC as an animated (even chaotic at times) office rather than some static, sterile organisation. This means some degree of intrusion into the operational area, which can be a source of annoyance to the staff, already under pressure from the task at hand.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center has adopted a policy which allows the media to have open access during a hurricane event with free access to the forecasting area and to all staff, particularly senior decision makers. This gives the NHC a high public profile during a hurricane event which allows a path for effective, direct communication of information. The trade-off for this is a corresponding level of disruption for staff involved in the forecasting process.

In the Australian experience, the media are not as numerous and largely tend to operate by pre-recording interviews rather than subject forecasters to prolonged episodes in front of the cameras. Some Australian TCWCs try to minimise the intrusion on staff by arranging for television crews to arrive when the workload is the lightest so that senior staff are able to devote time to the interview. The interview is generally conducted away from the main forecasting area but in association with a workstation which has a display of radar or satellite imagery. After the interview is completed the television crew is at liberty to take "vision" of the forecasting centre in operation as general background which they use in editing the story prior to transmission. Live to air coverage of cyclone events also occurs occasionally, but these are not usually of a prolonged nature.

Smaller offices (Jamaica TCWC, for example) tend to have more limited interaction with the media, and this is largely confined to pre-arranged interviews with senior personnel. Again the trend here is to limit these to times which are most convenient to the TCWC. The Royal Observatory in Hong Kong tends to maintain a more strict approach to media coverage. The media do not as a general rule enter the forecasting area and interviews are carried out by senior staff in a separate part of the Royal Observatory. However they cater to media needs by the provision of graphics presentations of the typhoon event.

There are no hard and fast rules for any particular office about how to interact with the media. It will always be a matter of the circumstances surrounding each cyclone event and the traditions and backgrounds of each individual country. However it must be emphasised that direct media interaction is a very effective way of communicating warning information, and if pursued correctly, also gives that valuable commodity, credibility. To this end, training of senior personnel in communication skills is highly recommended. The degree of interaction is very much a function of the sophistication of the media itself, but if possible TCWCs should try to develop a protocol which minimises media intrusion on staff already under stress from dealing with the tropical cyclone, but still shows the TCWC as a dynamic, credible organisation. If a separate area can be allocated in the layout of a TCWC specifically for media interviews, then disruption to the office routine can be minimised. However, this should done in consultation with the media - it would be plainly wasting resources to set up a facility that the media would not be happy to use, and media who have traditionally enjoyed free access to a TCWC may not see any benefit from this at all.

Media interaction should be integrated into the office routine as a planned, deliberate task rather than left as an ad hoc or rather onerous exercise. There are significant benefits to be gained from disseminating warning information effectively.

Contents Chapter 6.7