Nicholas Stewart, a Western Illinois University graduate and certified meteorologist, works for KHQA and is their storm chaser.
Working for KHQA, Stewart has had the opportunity to operate the camera and report on a multitude of stories, from murder investigations to city council to fire to storms. However, Stewart’s favorite thing to report on is weather.
Stewart’s updates on Twitter and Facebook generally revolve around weather and giving severe weather updates in an effort to warn the public so that citizens in the affected areas have a chance to take cover. Not only does Stewart check out the severe weather in the tri-states region, he also travels to hot tornado areas such as Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas, and many others.
When covering severe weather, Stewart uses a multitude of various medias in order to report on the weather as best as he can. When chasing for KHQA, Stewart has a live feed set up in his car that can stream straight to television and also goes “live” on Facebook when not on TV, which can go directly to the people who “like” his page.
Not only that, sometimes Stewart is called on the air for phone interviews or in-person interviews. He also takes video of damage after the fact alongside other reporters who speak to people affected by the damage.
Stewart posts on his Twitter multiple times a day, usually about weather but sometimes about breaking or feature stories that he may be covering as the video photographer.
Stewart does a fantastic job of keeping his social media active and keeping his viewers and readers entertained and engrossed in what he is posting. Just the other day, Stewart made a compilation video of his coverage of the severe weather hitting the Missouri area.
One thing that I find intriguing about Stewart’s use of social media is that he interacts directly with the people who follow him. He asks questions, tweets at people, retweets people, comments back on Facebook, and more. This is a really good thing he does because it makes the news more personal and will help keep people engaged.
Along with directly interacting with the general public, Stewart also interacts with other experts within the meteorology community by tweeting at them, asking questions, and having public discussions about severe weather.
Stewart is also very humble on his social media and takes a lot of pride in the work he does. For example, the other day he posted a screenshot of a tweet from another reporter who was speaking to someone affected by the severe weather that Stewart was covering. This woman credited Stewart with saving her life, because she saw his coverage on television (which interrupted scheduled television, much to the complaint of many people) and took cover. Stewart used this tweet to point out the importance of breaking news and especially severe weather interrupting regularly scheduled television because it can help save a person’s life, which is what Stewart aims to do each time he loads up his weather van or the KHQA Storm Chaser vehicle. Not only does he do it for the good of the general public, Stewart chases as a hobby. He recommends that people who do not study meteorology do not attempt to storm chase, as it can be very dangerous for someone who does not know how to read the programs.
Tales from the Newsroom 