How TV News Directors View Climate Change and Their Weathercasters

Television news directors play pivotal roles as gatekeepers at their stations and in their communities.  Audience research confirms that local television news is the primary source of information for most Americans and other recent research confirms that local weathercasters play prominent roles as science communicators.  This research explores the attitudes these news managers have about the topic of climate change and how they view the role of their weathercasters.  While a large majority of news directors support the expanding role of their weathercasters as "station scientists," the data reveal some limitations and obstacles to how that role is performed.  In this sample, news directors show less skepticism about the science of climate change than do weathercasters, but reveal their own “trust issues” about how that science should be communicated at their news stations.  Data also reveal challenges surrounding journalistic norms such as “balance” and “framing” of coverage of climate change.