On Feb. 6, CBS news aired a piece on the snowstorm. At the beginning of the video clip, Obama coined the term “snowmaggedon”. This term quickly became a trending topic on Twitter and the entire DC area was using it to describe this weekend’s snowstorm.
I think CBS was thinking smart when they put this piece together. They opened it with a quote from the president and then moved into facts about the snowstorm and how it affected the people and business of the area. They used the news value of prominence by using a quote from the president, someone that everyone knows about. CBS did report the accumulations and they ended the piece with stories of people who were snowed in and stranded in airports.
I agree, it was smart of CBS to copy “snowmaggedon” and run with it, making it a key term to nickname the storm. When a President says something, people usually listen.