Watching the disaster unfold: geographies of engagement with live-streamed extreme weather

Abstract

ABSTRACT An increasing number of Extreme Weather Events (EWEs) – including storms and hurricanes – are now being live-streamed on websites such as YouTube. These streams often repurpose existing webcam infrastructure to generate channels that host footage of extreme weather and subsequent damage. Despite evidence of increasing popularity (with streams sometimes generating hundreds of thousands of simultaneous viewers) they are yet to be critically examined. This paper offers the first exploration of these streams by examining how commentors utilise them as opportunities for hazard engagement, sense-making and witnessing. The study analyses data from streams of three events: Hurricane Irma (2017), Hurricane Ian (2022) and the ‘2022 UK Storms’ (Dudley, Eunice and Franklin). In doing so, I evidence that these streams can operate as spaces where attachments and (dis)connections to affected places are imagined and performed. In particular, I draw attention towards viewers who watch streams in their entirety (sometimes 8–24 hours), and whose commitments to the mundaneness of ‘weather watching’ are considered as performances of support and solidarity. The paper concludes by calling for further research that examines the role of informal or ad-hoc virtual spaces that enable (i) engagement with changing places and/or (ii) the sharing/contestation of risk communication messaging.