Call for Abstracts: "Ways of Speaking: The Role of Language in the Production, Communication, and Interpretation of Weather Information"

[Jennifer Spinney]

Call for Abstracts:  "Ways of Speaking: The Role of Language in the Production, Communication, and Interpretation of Weather Information"

2-6 February 2014, Atlanta, Georgia

Ninth Symposium on Policy and Socio-Economic Research (http://annual.ametsoc.org/2014/index.cfm/programs-and-events/conferences-and-symposia/ninth-symposium-on-policy-and-socio-economic-research/)

Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society (http://annual.ametsoc.org/2014/)


Language has the power to create multiple social realities (Philips 1999).  The practices of producing weather information coupled with the various methods of communicating it results in multiple interpretations and multiple societal outcomes, or realities.  The organizers of this session seek papers that discuss the role of language in the official and unofficial production of weather information, the various ways that communication takes place between and among groups, and the effects such practices have on society and on the ability to adequately protect life and property. With a special focus on language, topics for this session could include:  
(1) Issues of linguistic competency, legitimacy, and authority as they relate to the production and communication of weather information; 
(2) Weather information as text and the influence of word choice, language choice, style or tone  on communication and decision making by meteorologists, emergency managers, broadcast meteorologists and other stakeholders in preparation for and in response to severe weather alerts;
(3) The flow of weather information between official and unofficial sources, including the mechanisms by which information is pared and transferred, and how modifications might influence public perceptions of risk and decision making;
(4) The language of emergency -- how does the production, communication, and interpretation of weather information change for multilingual communities?
Other explorations of the language of weather information are welcome.

The goal of this session is to better understand how linguistic issues affect the ways people interpret and respond to weather information by bringing together an interdisciplinary group of social science scholars.

Please submit your abstracts by 1 August 2013 (the deadline will likely be extended and late submissions will be accepted if the Session is not full) at https://ams.confex.com/ams/94Annual/oasys.epl.  Select the link for "Ninth Symposium on Policy and Socio-Economic Research" and once there, click the button for "Ways of Speaking" and follow the instructions.  An abstract fee of $95 (payable by credit card or purchase order) is charged at the time of submission (refundable only if abstract is not accepted).  Authors of accepted presentations will be notified via e-mail by late September 2013.  All abstracts, manuscripts and presentations will be available on the AMS Web site at no cost.

For more information about this session, contact Jennifer Spinney at jspinney at uwo.ca.