Using Facebook Live as a New Tool to Disseminate Critical Weather Information to Vulnerable Communities

As the American public continues to move away from traditional media platforms at a noteworthy rate, there has been a steady increase in the consumption of digital media over the last decade. Consequently, new efforts throughout the weather community to seek new digital platforms to provide critical and time-sensitive weather information that was once tied to only traditional platforms. One medium in particular, live video streaming, has recently become popular among citizens in regards to receiving critical updates. According to research consultancy group Magid, almost half of all online consumers watch at least one live stream a week, with the most popular category being live breaking news. Also, when asked why they watch live streaming, the most common answer was to “feel updated and informed.”

Facebook’s Live Video option has become a social media powerhouse since its debut in April 2016. It almost instantaneously changed the way Facebook’s two-billion plus users receive breaking news. Also in 2016, the National Weather Service began testing the implementation of live video platforms at select offices. In April of 2019, the experiment was expanded to 93 offices, including the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Jackson, MS (WFO JAN). Several significant events have impacted WFO JAN since the testing began and throughout these events, Facebook Live was proven to be an instrumental tool for alerting vulnerable populations of impending weather threats. During one event in particular, an April tornado outbreak, citizens reported that due to power outages and other local factors, they solely relied on WFO JAN’s Facebook Live updates for critical weather updates. Additionally, local tests, surveys, and analytics studies confirmed that Facebook Live is indeed a great tool to help fill messaging gaps that exist throughout the WFO JAN forecast area, as well as the rest of the country.