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The problem is that most of the people who are watching don't know that "code red" has no real meaning, and they may decide what action to take based on what th
by greenyoda 7y ago
The problem is that most of the people who are watching don't know that "code red" has no real meaning, and they may decide what action to take based on what the TV station says. Those actions could end up being costly and unnecessary.
As the article says toward the end:
> Other meteorologists aren’t a fan of proprietary alert days to begin with, expressing reluctance toward alerts that don’t originate from the National Weather Service.
> “To me, the best option is communicating the risks issued by the Storm Prediction Center,” wrote Kit Cloninger, weekend meteorologist at KSNB in Hastings, Neb. “It’s simple, and consistency is key with broadcasting. Otherwise, viewers may wonder why one station issued an ‘alert day’ while another one didn’t.”
> Jamie Moker, a University of Arizona researcher working on improving weather modeling, agrees.
> “Branding is not universal across all stations,” he wrote. After all, the National Weather Service already has more than 100 types of weather alerts it can issue. Moker argued that the solution isn’t for stations to create more alerts but to work on communicating existing ones.
- js2 7y agoSince the term has no real meaning, maybe desensitizing people to it by overusing it is the best outcome. I'd honestly be surprised if people acted on these faux alerts. I think folks are pretty used to local stations claiming just about everything is urgent, breaking, and important.
- jjoonathan 7y agoI suspect it's the intended outcome. "Silly librul media calls code red every time it gets a little warm -- they must be getting desperate to convince me about global warming."
- whenchamenia 7y agoThis type of ad hominem just sets back your case, no matter how much facts may be on your side. Stick to facts and leave the insulting stereotypes at home.
- xnyan 7y agoWhat if receiving political slurs is ones lived reality? I’ve been called a silly (stupid/fucking/etc) liberal in response to my views on climate change. The discussion was on topic, perhaps not written in APA per APA style guide but we can judge the content just fine without someone pretending to be a schoolmaster tut tutting at a naughty child.
- jjoonathan 7y agoThank you. I have in fact erexperienced this political slur, delivered in this accent, in the context of a very similar argument, with regularity. Regardless of the intended outcome, this will be the actual outcome for at least ~1/3 of viewers, although given the history of Sinclair broadcast group I don't think it is a very large leap at all to speculate about it also being the intent.
- bonniemuffin 7y agoThe problem is that people who've gotten desensitized to fake Red Alerts, are also going to be skeptical when the National Weather Service issues real alerts, because most people can't tell the difference. Do you know what specific terms the weather service uses for real alerts? I sure don't.
- js2 7y agoAs it happens, I do. NWS alerts are either "watch" or "warning." I have a radio for alerts. The weather alerts are by type (flooding, thunderstorm, tornado) and severity (watch or warning). I've disabled everything but tornado warning (not watch) on my radio. That means a tornado has been spotted and I want it to wake me up so I can get my family into the basement. https://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/ https://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/ There is a separate system for sending alerts to cell phones: https://www.ready.gov/alerts https://www.ready.gov/alerts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Emergency_Alerts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Emergency_Alerts
- TeMPOraL 7y agoThat's just you though. And me. Probably most HNers too. But our parents or friends? For many of them, it's all the same, some folks in telly communicating warnings they divined via arcane magic and satellites.