The FINANCIAL -- Most Americans closely followed news about Hurricane Irene as it neared
our shores and give good marks to the media coverage of threatening bad
weather.
Eighty-one percent (81%) of Adults were following recent news reports about Irene at least somewhat closely, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. That includes 48% who were following Very Closely. Just 18% say they were not following very closely, if at all.
Sixty-two percent (62%) say they were regularly following weather reports to check the course of Hurricane Irene as it threatened the east coast of the United States and then struck on Friday and into the weekend. Thirty-six percent (36%) were not regularly keeping track of the hurricane.
Thirty-one percent (31%) of Americans say they live close enough to a shoreline to be impacted by a hurricane, and of that group 74% were regularly following weather reports to monitor Irene’s progress.
Sixty-three percent (63%) of all adults rate the media coverage of threatening weather as about right. Just 28% say the media gives too much coverage to incidents like Irene. Only seven percent (7%) think there’s not enough coverage. There’s little difference of opinion over the quality of threatening weather coverage between those who live close to a shoreline at risk from a hurricane and those who don’t.
The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on August 26-27, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
The number of Americans following Irene and generally approving of media coverage is comparable to findings this spring when severe weather plagued the South and Midwest for several weeks.
Women were following regular weather updates about Irene more closely than men. Given that finding, it’s perhaps not surprisingly that one-in-three men (34%) think there is too much media coverage of threatening weather, a view shared by just 22% of women.
Middle-aged adults tend to be more critical of the media coverage than those in other age groups, but a majority of those in all age categories think the coverage is about right.
Most Americans still get their weather news from local television despite the variety of news sources available these days.
Sixty percent (60%) of Adults think this summer in their area has been hotter than recent summers. Fifty-two percent (52%) say that when it comes to health and safety risks, it is worse when the weather gets too hot than when it gets too cold.
Rasmussen Reports will release more Hurricane Irene-related data later today.
www.rasmussenreports.com
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