Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media/June 2009 Controlling Nature: Weathercasts on Local Television News Richard Doherty and Kevin G. Barnhurst Since discovering the shrinking politician sound-bite, researchers have shown that TV news grew more journalist-centered since the 1960s. To explore how far journalistic authority extends, this study turns to the weather. It examines local coverage weekday mornings on three local stations before a na- tional convention. Close qualitative reading, supplemented by content coding, compares weather rhetoric, tone, and style during segments. Weathercasters raise concerns during weather reports, which they soften during banter. Most surprising is their rhetorical claim to control nature. They personify weather, but ignore the audience. Accuracy in forecasts relates to the visual style and ratings of the station. I get the news I need on the weather report. Oh, I can gather all the news I need on the weather report. Hey, I’ve got nothing to do today but smile. —Paul Simon, Bridge Over Troubled Water, 1969 Weather has become more than small talk. Storms have been the biggest news stories in recent years, and controversies have swirled around the coverage. In blogs and online discussion groups, charges of sensationalism abound. After flooding in New Jersey, one reporter during a live broadcast got caught exaggerating: two men walked between the camera and her canoe, which sat in just two inches of water (‘‘Media Sensationalism,’’ 2005). Weather announcers, who previously turned up as buffoons in bit parts in popular fiction, also became central characters. In the 2005 Paramount movie, The Weather Man, Nicolas Cage plays a popular Chicago television personality trying to maintain professional control. Previous studies of weathercasting are out of date and treat their subject as a set of professional techniques or as elements of industry history and economics. To advance research on a neglected topic, this case study asks what the rhetoric is of Richard Doherty (M.A. Antioch New England Graduate School) is a doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and instructor and technology coordinator in the Department of Communication, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). His research focuses on the environment, technology, and research methods in communication. Kevin G. Barnhurst (Ph.D., University of Amsterdam) is a guest professor at the Department of Media, Cognition, and Communication, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, on leave from UIC. His research examines ideological processes in political, visual, and media studies. © 2009 Broadcast Education Association Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 53(2), 2009, pp. 211–226 DOI: 10.1080/08838150902907710 ISSN: 0883-8151 print/1550-6878 online 211