Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Sherman-Morris, Kathleen

Committee Member

Brown, Michael

Committee Member

Dixon, Paul Grady

Date of Degree

12-15-2012

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Geosciences

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Geosciences

Abstract

An association was tested between the presence of a television weather broadcaster on-screen and viewers’ likelihood to seek shelter, measured via risk perception and preventative behavior. Social networking websites were used to recruit respondents. Four clips of archived severe weather videos, one pair (on-screen and off-screen broadcaster) using the reflectivity product and another pair (on-screen and off-screen broadcaster) using velocity product, were presented to participants. Viewers’ trust and weather salience were also quantified for additional interactions. A relationship between viewers’ risk perception (preflectivity = 0.821, pvelocity = 0.625) and preventative behavior (preflectivity = 0.217, pvelocity = 0.236) and the presence of the broadcaster on-screen was not found. The reflectivity product was associated with higher risk perception and preventative behavior scores than the velocity product (prp = 0.000, ppb = 0.000).

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/18511

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