What do Forecasters Think About Social Media? Real-World Use of Social Media During the May 20, 2013 Oklahoma City-Area Tornado

Most of the extant scholarship that examines the question of “scientists” and “publics” has focused on improving the communication of scientific information from the scientist to the public. In many ways, scientists are assumed to be the arbiters of knowledge while the public is assumed to be the (more or less reluctant/skeptical/uninformed) consumer of scientific knowledge. While the concept of “citizen science” seeks to engage the public in a more active role in science, the real-world use of public-as-citizen-scientists has been limited and highly circumscribed. On the other hand, the everyday practices of many meteorologist forecasters has traditionally relied on the public for gathering data regarding severe weather events as they unfold – whether through a network of trained spotters or, as is seen more frequently today, emanating from unknown, faceless people outside of spotter networks who submit their own observations of weather events – photos, videos, or text – via social media. Drawing on 1) interviews with research meteorologists and forecasters and 2) ethnographic observations of severe storm events conducted in several WFOs beginning in January 2013, we will discuss how forecasters used information from the public provided through social media during the May 20, 2013 Oklahoma City-area tornado. We compare and contrast the real time use of social media information during the May 20th event with several other observed severe weather events. We argue that the concept of “socially distributed cognition” might best explain how social media is used by forecasters in real time and how forecaster beliefs about the public and social media can impact forecasting of severe weather events.