Digital Aspects of Long-Form Video Coverage and the Evolution of Collegiate Involvement

The University of Oklahoma houses two nationally recognized colleges: The School of Meteorology and Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. The partnership between the two colleges allows Broadcast-focused Meteorology students the chance to thrive within both programs. At OU, we have a student news program called OU Nightly that airs live Monday through Friday during the semester. On February 26th, 2023, the chance for inclement weather prompted a group of motivated students to initiate the early-stage development of video long-form severe weather coverage. After beaming success, our program continued to provide severe weather coverage and because of this, our learning experience expanded. This education was discussed at the 33rd Conference on Education during the Annual Meeting this year.

As part of starting the long-form coverage, we also started a new rebranding of the news program and a push for social media distribution. Since then, OU Nightly has now branded their weather team as “Your Campus Weather Authority,” issuing Campus Weather Alert Days on high-impact weather days. During our 10+ hours on air over the course of the semester, we had nearly 30,000 viewers on Facebook live, and over 150,000 viewers on YouTube live. We also are leveraging the fact that our weather team is coming of age during the rising impact of social media. Digital content reaches all age ranges, and this program allows for young adults and adolescents to stay weather informed, especially in the heart of the central plains.

In addition to our wide reach on social media, we have also formed a partnership with Weather Call, a company that provides phone calls and text messages in the event of a severe weather alert. Our OU Nightly Campus Weather Authority has fronted these voicemails for Cleveland County, Oklahoma—so now, residents are able to subscribe to the program to receive real-time alerts for their area directly from OU our weather team.

What began as two nationally recognized colleges forming a partnership to develop a Broadcast Meteorology program at the University of Oklahoma, turned into a digitally accessible form of weather communication for the Norman campus and surrounding neighbors. With the largest team of Collegiate Meteorologists in the country, the sky is the limit for our program.