The Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) has collaborated with The Weather Company, an IBM business, to provide a technology-enabled weather curriculum to students.
Students and staff members will have access to the Personal Weather Station (PWS) set up at the college along with RainWise, a manufacturer of professional grade meteorological equipment for various applications. The collaboration will allow students to understand weather and its impact on people and the environment.
The curriculum will expose the budding journalists to weather forecasting and reporting with the expertise of meteorologists, climate experts and journalists. It is imperative for such a curriculum now as there is a need to provide right information ahead to people owing to changing weather patterns and related disasters posing risks to lives.
The collaboration would create a professional awareness about covering weather as part of journalism, according to a release.
“The changing role and importance of weather in our lives makes this awareness... and the journalistic expertise to cover the weather in all its predictability and unpredictability... and indispensable part of new age journalism,” said Sashi Kumar, Chairman, ACJ.
With its localised weather information, the PWS would enable students to interpret data, visualise it through graphs and dashboards and report on weather.
Accurate information
On the collaboration, Himanshu Goyal, India Business Leader, The Weather Company, said it would lay the foundation for effective and accurate story-telling by news presenters with the use of technology.
The Weather Channel app and weather.com are available to provide specific weather forecasts and information.
