Media Ignorance When It Comes To The Weather

[Weather-history]

Don't you just love the ignorance of the media when it comes to the weather.

From the 31st May 2005 edition of the Sun, the day after the Whit Bank Holiday

"Storms lashed other parts of the UK yesterday as the Bank Holiday became a big wash-out."

Well for most of the UK it was actually a reasonable day! There were storms and the tornado(es) around Cambridgeshire and the Southeast but for most it wasn't a washout!!!

From the 17th of July 2005 edition of the News of the World

"the hot spell is set to continue for the rest of the week"

Infact the forecast was for it to turn cooler and become more unsettled which it did

and from today's (7th August) edition of the News of the World.

"and forecasters say it will get hotter later in the week, with temperatures soaring to 24C"

When you consider it can get into the 30s at this time of the year, 24C does not seem to me a soaring temperature! :lol: :lol:

[Guest Mr_S]

end [/rant] :lol:

just kidding Mr_D but you are right. Take for example any tornado's we do get the media says its a tornado and hype the bloody thing up when it can be little more then they advertise. But i suppose thats the media's job. To overhype crap and make it sell

[Methuselah]

Pheww - what a scorcher! :lol: :lol:

[flagpole]

Don't you just love the ignorance of the media when it comes to the weather.

From the 31st May 2005 edition of the Sun, the day after the Whit Bank Holiday

"Storms lashed other parts of the UK yesterday as the Bank Holiday became a big wash-out."

Well for most of the UK it was actually a reasonable day! There were storms and the tornado(es) around Cambridgeshire and the Southeast but for most it wasn't a washout!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think the problem there is that the media tends to be quite biased towards the South-East, we've seen it on this board too. If those in Kent don't get snow then the winter is a wash-out even if the North is under three feet of the stuff :lol:

[Thundery wintry showers]

Quite right FP...

[Guest metcheck]

Yep, the media will always bias (especially the national press) towards London. Just digressing a little. Can anyone remember one forecaster predicting a scorcher for August 12 this year? The story came out some time earlier this year, but I never caught the name of the forecasting agency which released this.

Reason I ask, is that one journo called me yesterday to ask who released that forecast, I think there may be a "face the truth" moment for that agency.

A

[Methuselah]

Ken Ring? :lol:

[Thundery wintry showers]

The famous ones, for me, are when the forecasters say it is going to be dull and wet in the southeast, therefore it is going to be dull and wet everywhere (or vice versa).

February 1998 is renowned for its glorious mild sunny weather, and March 2001 for its dull cold wet weather. However, in Scotland and much of northern England, those descriptions are decidedly poor.

[J10]

There is no question that there is a major media bias when it comes to the weather.

Anything outside of the SE tends to be ignored.

[shuggee]

News reader, 'And now it's time for the weather with Gareth Smithe - Hello Gareth, when will this gloom and rain end?'.

Gareth, 'I know <laughs> still a couple more days to go I'm afraid...'

Belfast 23C and sunny. Carlisle 22C and sunny. Abiemore 25C and sunny...

How many times have we had this charade?!

[summer blizzard]

Yes, the media is appalling.

Nobody actually made a forcast of the 12th of August being a scorcher, the Met Office said that there may be a warm spell around the middle of August and the media started printing record breaking headlines.

I have a solution to the media bias problem, if we make York the capital city of England again then the media will be biased towards the north of England and they will start printing headlines of massive amounts of snow, when in reality it is only a inch.

[Weather-history]

Remember the M11 snow chaos of January 2003 and Sky News was saying "snowbound Britain" and "much of the country was gripped by snow", when in fact a sizeable portion of the UK had no lying snow at all.

[su rui ke]

and from today's (7th August) edition of the News of the World.

"and forecasters say it will get hotter later in the week, with temperatures soaring to 24C"

When you consider it can get into the 30s at this time of the year, 24C does not seem to me a soaring temperature!  :lol:   :lol:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm sure I've read about temperatures 'plummeting' to 2C in January as well! Do they ever think about what they are writing?

I couldn't agree more about the south-east bias, but individual presenters (if not forecasters) are obviously always going to be tend to think that everyone in the country is experiencing the same weather as they are. This will only improve if there is a change in culture in media that claim to be national rather than regional organisations. I think some newspapers are probably beyond hope however.

[Nick H]

If the largest regional proportion of the population live there and most of national income/gross domestic product is generated in the south-east then I have no complaints about the media being biased towards that region.

[Carl]

Don't you just love the ignorance of the media when it comes to the weather.

The thing that really annoys me about "national" weather forecasters (the press, tv and radio organisations) all assume that whatever weather is being experienced in the South East is some kind of indication of how it is elsewhere.

Typically, its times (like the last few weeks) when they say "and it will be another hot one today".

Now, in London, that may well be the case but in the North East and many other parts of the country, its been distinctly chilly. But what does it matter eh? Providing the south east are covered?

I've given up totally on the BBC as a weather resource, they are never right - seems to have got a lot worse with the introduction of their new graphics... but we'll not get into that (again) :lol:

Carl

[Carl]

If the largest regional proportion of the population live there and most of national income/gross domestic product is generated in the south-east then I have no complaints about the media being biased towards that region.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thats utter nonsense Nick.

If you want to do it on the numbers, according to Wikipedia, on Jan 1st 2005, there was a population of 7,421,228 in London. I've had to refer to the CIA factbook for the UK population figure as of July 2005, this is quoted as 60,441,457.

I fail to see your arguement justifying this unnecessary bias.

Carl

[A Gower Guy]

When a big chill is expected and the winds are sourcing from the Artic, they always say that temperatures will fall to -18°c or what ever the temperature is there at the time, even though its unlikely even by night?

[flagpole]

Thats utter nonsense Nick.

If you want to do it on the numbers, according to Wikipedia, on Jan 1st 2005, there was a population of 7,421,228 in London. I've had to refer to the CIA factbook for the UK population figure as of July 2005, this is quoted as  60,441,457.

I fail to see your arguement justifying this unnecessary bias.

Carl

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What does he know anyway, he's from the South Pole :lol: :lol: :lol:

Edited August 7, 2005 by flagpole

[Andy Bown]

and from today's (7th August) edition of the News of the World.

"and forecasters say it will get hotter later in the week, with temperatures soaring to 24C"

When you consider it can get into the 30s at this time of the year, 24C does not seem to me a soaring temperature!  :lol:   :lol:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hahahahaha soaring to 24c!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

That's only a bit above average. It was 2 years ago this week that there was the record breaking heat (38.1c wasn't it?). 24c is 14+c lower than the record :lol: .

[Weather-history]

Thats utter nonsense Nick.

If you want to do it on the numbers, according to Wikipedia, on Jan 1st 2005, there was a population of 7,421,228 in London. I've had to refer to the CIA factbook for the UK population figure as of July 2005, this is quoted as  60,441,457.

I fail to see your arguement justifying this unnecessary bias.

Carl

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree

Nick does give the impression of being somebody who believes civilisation ends north of Watford Gap especially with the GDP comment. He made a comment about "just to placate northerners" in another thread which I thought was a comment that stunk.

Edited August 7, 2005 by Mr_Data

[reef]

Don't get me started on this one!

I remember the May 2005 heatwave and the headlines saying "Britain faces heatwave" when London hit 32°C. It was assumed that because the south east was hot, the rest of the UK was too. In reality, it was only 18°C here and didnt even top 9°C in Edinburgh!

Edited August 7, 2005 by reef

[Terminal Moraine]

The 'lowest common denominator' end of the media, be it newsprint or radio should really never bother themselves with complex subjects such as the weather.

Their whole ethos is to reduce every subject to a few snappy soundbites, irrespective of how meaningless the result may be.

This, combined with a complete lack of knowledge and understanding of the subject matter, is the perfect recipe for mindless drivel.

A perfect example occurred a few weeks ago when I heard the forecast on radio 4 mention a few heavy showers in southern England, everywhere else mainly dry. When I turned to radio 1 a few minutes later the woman on newsbeat was cheerily announcing that the weather would be 'wet everywhere'.

Spare me, please.

T.M

[Nick H]

I really don't know what some of you expect.

Any country's media will always be biased to the capital of that country and the surrounding region, as by implication (in fact you could say something stronger - by definition) the majority of newsworthy events occur there, e.g. politics.

And if you think the supposed bias is bad in Britain, let me tell you it's nowhere near as bad as France and Australia, to name but two countries I have experienced. I suspect in most of Europe it's just as marked. Some of you have it lucky - if anything we should be more geared towards the SE in our media.

If we moved the capital from London to Birmingham (heaven forbid) then what would happen? All the south-easterners start complaining that the Midlands receive too much coverage?

Edited August 7, 2005 by Nick H

[flagpole]

Forgive me Nick but you talk rubbish.

[Nick H]

Forgive me Nick but you talk rubbish.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You have such a powerful and compelling debating style. It's good to see we have such well-informed debate on this board.