Weatherman

We are having our first big snow of the winter.  I did not expect it at all because I haven’t been watching the news or anything.  All I knew is that it started snowing in the morning… and it just did not stop.  Still going as of 10:40pm.

We are living in the era of narrowcasting.  Days of everyone gathering around the TV for the 6 o’clock news is over.  We pick and choose what we want to know, when we want to know it.  This means if I am not actively looking at the weather-specific media channel, I will not hear about it, unless I’m watching network TV and the weather center leaves a weather report scrolling on the bottom of the screen, or I’m listening to radio and the weather report comes on.  Those who watch their shows online or on DVR, and listen to satellite radio, will not know about the weather.  As for me, I did not watch TV the past few days, and I go directly to my favorite sites on the Internet, so I was completely unaware of this snowstorm until it hit us.

But I noticed something interesting during this storm.  When looking for weather reports, I still wanted to listen to the weatherman on the radio or watch one on TV.  I relied less on the weather reports and radar maps online.  Sure, I do rely on weather.com for upcoming weather, but in a serious case like this, I wanted to hear it from the weatherman.  I guess that is because they seem more local than the websites, and they explain the weather in layman’s terms.  Not that I don’t understand “snow overnight and into early morning”, I just like hearing it from the weatherman.  I can’t really explain it.  I guess even I – a Droid user, a man who will replace cable with a media PC in his home, a man who relies on the Internet for every single bit of news – have a soft spot for weatherman.  Maybe this means even though TV is continuing to lose viewers, the news, and the weather, will always be on it.