Media
How to report a heatwave
Published 15 May 2008
The only cliché banned from use is: "Phew, what a scorcher!"
The following are notes for a possible university lecture in a course to be called “Techniques for Reporting Every Eventuality”.
Good morning, everyone. Dr Johnson once wrote that "when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather". Transpose the good doctor's sentiment to the present day and you have what Americans call a "watercooler topic", or the kind of thing office workers discuss in idle moments.
What this proves is that weather has news value, and we are going to look at certain conventions which the British press has evolved for reporting it. In our journalism lecture next week we deal with snow, floods and extreme cold, but today our topic is heatwaves.
Heatwaves are certainly news, but unfortunately, since they have happened most years since the last ice age, they are not strictly new. This is why the classic headline to announce them - "Phew, what a scorcher! . . . and weathermen say there's more to come" - is one of the very few that have been so overused that they are actually banned in reputable newsrooms.
Happily, we still have access to other well-tried formulae, as the coverage of the May 2008 heatwave demonstrates: "Feelin' hot, hot, hot" (Mirror). "Britain basks as summer comes early" (Observer). "The heat goes on" (Daily Mail). "Sunny May 'to be warmest ever'" (Express).
As well as the headlines, in the text of the story no language is too hackneyed: newspapers operate on the assumption that the last heatwave was so long ago readers remember nothing about them.
A few choice phrases function like the faces on a Rubik's Cube, ready to be twisted into any viable arrangement. Thus: "Sun-seekers in their thousands have flocked to beaches as the whole country enjoys . . ." (Express). "Soaring temperatures . . . sent thousands of people dashing for the coast" (Independent). "Britain basked in glorious sunshine yesterday as forecasters said more sizzling weather is on its way. Sunlovers flocked to the south coast as temperatures soared" (Mirror).
The reporter's work in a heatwave is greatly assisted by photographers, who will take (or possibly recycle) three basic shots: young women wearing bikinis in parks; the crowded beach at Brighton (incorporating young women wearing bikinis); and older couples in folding chairs, wearing vests and looking pink.
Good reporters, to develop their story, check weather websites for places that should be hotter than us, but aren't. This lets them deploy the gloating "in the shade" formula, as in: "82F: Britain puts Bahamas in the shade" (Daily Telegraph) and "Millions sizzled in the summer sun as the UK put the Costa del Sol and Los Angeles in the shade" (Sun).
Next, remember as always the sociologists Galtung and Ruge, who in 1965 rated "negativity" so highly among the components of that mysterious entity known as news values. Yes, it is the journalist's job to find a downside to everything, even a sunny day.
So, after "The sweltering weather brought a boom for ice-cream sellers and pub landlords . . ." should always come something like ". . . but roadside rescue organisations saw a surge in call-outs to overheated cars" (Sun).
There is no shortage of such hazards to be dwelt upon: dogs and small children locked in cars; hay fever alerts; absenteeism from work; people floating out to sea on lilos. Smog and "tombstoning" have recently joined the list. And august bodies are always eager to get into print with their killjoy quotes, as when the British Association of Dermatologists warns: "Sunburn for a child can double the chances of skin cancer later in life" (Express).
Another option is the "not everywhere was so lucky" passage, in which, with just a hint of schadenfreude, the reporter points out that while the rest of us were basking, sizzling, roasting sweltering or whatever, there was a flood in Wales or a blizzard in Newcastle. (Note: there is room for confusion here, but the key is the conditions in the capital, where the newspapers are. If it is hot, even very hot, everywhere else in the country, but it is raining in London, then there is no heatwave.)
Finally, the climate is now officially spooky because of global warming and so any change in the weather is a fresh opportunity to unsettle the reader. A heatwave is therefore a peg on which to hang warnings about the parched Britain of the future and its doomed flora and fauna, possibly with a reference to mass immigration from low-lying countries.
This set of techniques should be more than enough to see any reporter through the three or four days which are, let us face it, the maximum duration of most British heatwaves. In the rare eventuality of a longer spell, there is only one possible course of action: dust down the cuttings from 1976 - and remember, it is always referred to as "The Long, Hot Summer".
Thank you very much for listening. See you next week.
Brian Cathcart is professor of journalism at Kingston University
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