Under the Weather: Media Induced Severe Storm Anxiety (MISSA) and the Local Weather News

This paper explores the theoretical model of Media Induced Severe Storm Anxiety (MISSA). The MISSA model hypothesizes that as heavy media users are increasingly exposed to television weather news, the more likely they will suffer from MISSA. Academic research shows that local television stations can create fear messages with the intentions of keeping audiences captive as a method of increasing ratings, and generating revenue for the broadcast station. The existence of MISSA as a media theory was established through the application of Herman and Chomsky's media propaganda model, George Gerbner's cultivation theory, and mean world syndrome to the literature of media fear messaging, television weather news, and severe weather phobia. This paper asks the following research questions: Does local weather newscasts contain the fear-driven messages required to cause MISSA? Does the audience perceive these messages as intended by the local station? Can cultivation theory be addressed within MISSA? The paper concludes by proposing a four-step methodological approach combining focus groups, content analysis, in-depth interviews, and quantitative surveys, as a means of testing MISSA's application to the field of metrological journalism.