Calm During the Storm: Micro-Assemblage, Meteorology and Community Building on a Local Independent Weather Blog During Hurricane Harvey

Abstract

ABSTRACT During Hurricane Harvey, a local weather blog heavily emphasized risk and meteorological data without defaulting to disaster or human interest frames common in mainstream news coverage of severe weather. Journalists routinely articulated uncertainty, delineating what was likely and what was possible, while imagining community through personal expression and shared experience. Space City Weather’s coverage of the record-breaking hurricane offers a unique case study of micro-assemblage, a process of content hybridization incorporating the acceptance and rejection of traditional journalism practices, emerging digital media techniques, unfiltered scientific expertise and media framing. Case study analysis provides a foundation for further study of local and independent weather blogs while building scholarship on micro-assemblage and hybrid digital media.