Author Date

2020-03-20

Degree Name

Department

Communications

College

Fine Arts and Communications

Defense Date

2020-03-09

Publication Date

2020-03-20

First Faculty Advisor

Miles Romney

First Faculty Reader

Robert Walz

Honors Coordinator

Clark Callahan

Keywords

weathercasters, broadcast, television, meteorology, race, gender

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the representation of women and minorities working as broadcast television weathercasters by examining eight randomly selected television markets. Individual biography web pages from each of the four local syndicate station websites (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC) were used for data collection. Information was collected about gender, race, number of twitter followers, chief meteorologist position, certificate type (AMS Seal of Approval or Certificate of Broadcast Meteorology) and the show shift for each individual meteorologist. Results indicate that while white males still dominate the majority of positions in smaller markets, women are more equally represented in larger markets. Minorities are still largely underrepresented in the broadcast meteorology industry.