Tougher requirements are underway in 2005 for broadcast meteorologists who want to showcase their American Meteorological Society (AMS) seals-of-approval on air.

AMS is strengthening the requirements for its Certified Broadcast Meteorologist and Seal of Approval holders, and there are indications that the effort could involve making television station meteorologists the on-staff science expert.

Such a move theoretically could lead to more local broadcast coverage of environmental issues, filling a substantial void in such coverage at most stations.

"The goal of the program is to certify that the holder meets specific educational and experience criteria and has passed rigorous testing in their knowledge and communication of meteorology and related sciences needed to be an effective broadcast meteorologist," AMS says.

In addition to having to pass a written exam on atmospheric science and related issues, those wanting the AMS seal will need to have at least a bachelor's degree in atmospheric science and take part in continuing education programs. Beginning in 2005, they will receive points for completing training activities, attending science-related conferences, symposia, technical lectures or seminars. "Examples include environmental or ecological issues, astronomy, marine science, zoology, aviation, etc., that solidify the meteorologist's position as the 'station scientist'," AMS posted on its website.

Along with authoring or co-authoring a "popular book with technical content," having a related B.S. degree, and authoring or co-authoring a peer-reviewed papers or book chapters, broadcast meteorologists can also earn accreditation points by gaining a "new area of expertise," AMS says.

Barbara Cochran, President, Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), commented in her online column that the credibility of the meteorologist is critical because of the significant influence that weather reporting has on local newscasts.

Forecasters have long been chosen "more for their personalities than their training in meteorology," she said, but things now are changing.

Working at AMS's request to gauge reactions of news directors to the more stringent certification procedures, she pointed to the opinion that "the meteorologist could provide expertise not readily available among other reporters and could offer explanatory stories with high audience appeal."

She indicated that among the 20 news directors and meteorologists who were asked to consider this idea, they expressed concern that an expanded role might "undermine the [audience's] sense of the meteorologist's expertise." But she said those concerns were lessened "if the stories the meteorologists did were closely tied to weather and the environment."

According to Cochran, news directors nonetheless felt a need "to pass the relevance test," and they had some concerns that meteorologists' story-telling skills might need to be buttressed with some producing, writing, and technical support.

"Some meteorologists argued that a station could boost its ratings by becoming known as the science station," Cochran wrote. "Most felt that adding scientific information to their reports was not a stretch and that the laws of science of meteorology apply to other sciences."

One concern Cochran pointed to that is common to print and broadcast newsrooms alike, there are limited resources to train and support the professional development of news staffs.

"Time off is hard to give, and money for travel expenses and program fees is scarce," she wrote. The new AMS requirements "will need to mesh with the resources and needs of most newsrooms."

The idea that a journalist's certification may boost public confidence in journalism, said Philip Meyer, a respected journalism professor at the University of North Carolina (author of Precision Journalism), suggests that journalists need to "rethink our chronic reluctance to self-regulate, as other professions do, on both morality and technical competence." (See Just Thinking column, this issue.)

Meyer wrote in the November/December 2004 Columbia Journalism Review that certification "tells employers and consumers alike that a practitioner has attained a minimum level of competence in some specialized field." Knowing a reporter's qualifications to report on a particular field "is information worth having when you decide whom to listen to," Meyer wrote, saying certification makes sense "in some substantive specialties."