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Chilean engineers, rescuers and workers have shown what they are capable of. ” The whole world along with Chile held curious to know what is going to happen next. So did the media around the world. Approximately 2,000 journalists from various corners of the world were there to cover the story of an impressive rescue operation The intensity of the incident compelled the world famous visual media channels like Lazier, CNN, and BBC etc. To telecast the dramatic rescue program live. It has been estimated that more than 1 billion people had watched the rescue on live television around the world.
Keeping pace with them the print media in home and abroad like The Daily Star, The Daily Prophet-all, New Age etc. , and the renowned Wall Street Journal, The economist, The Washington Post etc. Had given due treatment on the event So I have selected this event as the subject of my assignment. Here I am going to discuss the mass communication theories related to the media coverage on the accident of San Jose copper-gold mine of Chile. Before that let’s take a look at what actually happened in San Jose mine.
The information and data collected from various media of home and abroad tells about the story. On August 5, 2010, a cave-in occurred at the San Jose copper- gold mine in the Tacoma Desert near Copied, Chile. The San Jose mine is about 45 kilometers north of Copied, in northern Chile. The accident left 33 men trapped 700 meters below the ground, as reported by the owners, the San Stefan Mining Company (COMES), the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, the Chilean Undersecretary of Mining and the director of the SCREAMING (the National Mining and Geology Service).
The miners were trapped approximately 5 kilometers from the mine entrance. When the cave-in occurred there were two groups of workers in the mine; one as near the entrance and escaped immediately without incident. A group of 33 men was deep inside the mine and included several subcontracted mechanics who would not normally have been with the group. The rock fall caused a thick dust cloud that blinded the miners for up to six hours and caused lingering eye irritation and burning.
The shift supervisor, Luis Rugјa, recognizing the gravity of the situation and the difficulty involved in any rescue attempt, gathered his men in a secure room called a “refuge” and organized the men and meager resources for long-term survival. The National Emergencies Office of the Interior Ministry (ENEMY) reported that day the names of the 33 miners trapped in the mine. The trapped miners initially tried to escape through a ventilation shaft system, but the ladders required by mining safety codes were missing. The shafts later became inaccessible to rescue teams due to subsequent ground movements.
The company had failed to install the escape ladders which had been stipulated as a condition of restarting operations after authorities had closed the accident- plagued 100-year-old mine. The mine’s workings were reached by a long sloping doodad with many irregular spiral turns, not by a vertical mineshaft. The miners survived underground for a record 69 days. All 33 were rescued and brought to the surface on October 13, 201 0; the first miner emerged from the Phoenix 2 rescue capsule at 00:10 CLOT and the last at 21 :55 CLOT.
Rescue The search and rescue operation was led by Engineer And© Greatest, head of El Teeniest Mine of Coddled, Chile’s state owned copper corporation. Mine rescuers attempted to bypass the Rockwell at the main entryway through alternative passages but each route was blocked by fallen rock or threatened by ongoing rock movement. A second collapse occurred at the mine on 7 August when rescuers were forced to use heavy machinery while trying to gain access via a ventilation shaft.
Out of concern that additional attempts pursuing this route would cause further geological movement within the mine, attempts to reach the trapped miners through previously existing shafts were halted and other means to find the men were sought. On 22 August, a note written on a piece of paper with a red marker that confirmed the miners were alive. The note read: “Estates been en el refugee Los 33” (English: “We are alright in the shelter, the 33 [of us]”). Those words became an emblem of the miners’ survival and the rescue effort, appearing on websites, banners and t-shirts.
Hours later, video cameras sent down the borehole made contact with the trapped miners, capturing the first grainy, black-and-white, silent images of the skinny, dirty, shirtless and unshaven men. The rescue crews planned to raise the miners one by one with pods. The mine was old and there was concern of further collapses. So the rescue methodology therefore had to be carefully designed and implemented. Several types of drilling equipment and different access strategies to reach the miners with escape orioles were tried in parallel.
When the escape shaft reached the miners, there were three plans in operation?the Strata 950 (“Plan A”, 702 meter target depth at 900), the Ashrams TAXED (“Plan B”, 638 meter target depth at 820), and a RIG-421 drill (“Plan C”, 597 meter target depth at 850). The mine rescue effort to retrieve the miners began on Tuesday, 12 October at 19:00 CLOT and was dubbed Operation SST. Lawrence after the patron saint of miners whose statue at Copier’s church bears a miner’s helmet.
The first rescuer lowered to the miners was Manuel Gonzalez, an experienced rescue expert and employee of mining company Coddled, at 23:18 CLOT, following a three-hour delay for final safety tests. Gonzalez arrived in the collapsed mine and made contact with the miners at 23:36. Even though Chilean officials played down the risks of the rescue, the miners needed to be alert during the ascent in case something went wrong. Therefore, the rescue plan indicated that the first four miners to travel up the narrow shaft were to be those “deemed the fittest of body and mind”.
They could best tell the rescue team about the conditions of the journey and of the remaining miners. After the initial four, the rescues proceeded in order of health, with the least healthy men brought from the mine first. Rescuers sent a miner to the surface in the capsule returning after Gonzalez was sent down. The capsule was quickly rechecked for safety and, after 15 minutes, miner Florence ?visas began his ascent from the mine; the scene was filmed live from inside the mine and from the surface and broadcast worldwide.
The mine’s shift supervisor, Luis Girlјa (54), whose disciplined leadership was credited with keeping the men alive on an emergency food supply during their first 1 7 days thou contact from the outside world, was the last miner to make the journey. Each transit of the capsule (down or up) was projected to take 15 minutes, for a total time of 33 hours for the entire rescue operation. Health All 33 miners had been rescued, almost all in good medical condition, and expected to recover fully. Two miners were suffering from silicosis, one of whom also had pneumonia, and others were suffering from dental infections and corneal problems.
Three of the rescued miners had immediate surgery under general anesthesia for dental problems. Cost The total cost of the rescue operation was estimated at CSS$20 million, a third overdo by private donations with the rest coming from state-owned mining corporation Coddled and the government itself. Background The mine is owned by San Stefan Mining Company, (COMES), a company that is notoriously dangerous in the mineral-rich region and, according to an official with the non-profit Chilean Safety Association, eight workers have died at the mine in 12 years.
Between 2004 and 2010, the company received 42 fines for breaching safety regulations. The San Jose Mine was shut down in 2007 when relatives of a miner who had died in an accident sued company executives, but was reopened in 2008. The mine had a history of instability that had led to previous accidents, including one death. Chile has a long tradition in mining, which developed during the 20th century and made the country the world’s top producer of copper. Since 2000, an average of 34 people have died every year in mining accidents in Chile, with a high of 43 in 2008, according to a review of data collected by the state regulatory agency.
Chilean copper mine workers are among the highest-paid miners in South America. Although the accident itself has put into question mine safety in Chile, serious accidents in large mines are rare, particularly in those owned y the state copper mining company, Coddled, or by multinational companies. However, smaller mines such as the one at San Jose have generally lower safety standards. Mine workers at this mine were paid around 20% higher wages than at other Chilean mines, due to its poor safety record.
From 5th August Chile’s mining accident was almost a continuous issue for the mass media. All the discussions and news on this event possess multi- dimensional tie with the mass communication theories. Agenda-setting of mass media on coverage of Chile’s mining accident: Maxwell, Macomb’s and Donald Shaw have given the agenda setting theory of ass media. This theory focuses the influence of the mass media on setting the public agenda (what the public thinks is important) by highlighting certain issues. It means media fixes what people will think.
But there is a good controversy whether media fixes public agenda or public fixes media agenda. The news of Chile’s mining accident and the risk of 33 lives has drawn due necessity to be set as important agenda. But here I can say that media has set worldwide public agenda and made this topic as talk of the time. The mainstreaming media around the world have given this issue a great importance which has made our media to over. Social Learning theory and media coverage on Chile’s mining accident: Men always remain in social learning process. This learning process consists of four stages.
They are Stages of learning: Attention (due to simplification, distinctiveness, usefulness and positive attitude towards violence in the media) Retention Production/motor reproduction Motivation Theorist of this theory Albert Bandeau has said here that men learn not only from social institutions but also from various media. From this news people come to know about the nearly impossible rescue with the help of modern equipments and the process. This idea will help to face or overcome such crucial situation. The people who don’t know much about mine but want to work there will think more rationally.
The mine companies all over the world will be more conscious about their safety regulations Media uses and gratification theory and media coverage on Chile’s mining accident: This theory focus on what do people do with the media? Why people use particular media? It is because media fulfill some needs. When someone gets upset with his or her own life, then he or she tries to get relief watching or enjoying or sharing with various media. People try to better their condition. People can learn style, dress sense, speaking style etc. , also can motivate them selves watching or hearing something enthusiastic.
We see this to happen when a next disaster alike comes over New Zealand. On 19th November a Cole mine accident happened in Pike River mine of Greyhound at New Zealand where 29 men had been trapped. Though, New Zealand police cast doubt over whether rescuers will be able to enter a coal mine where miners were trapped, as a bore hole drilled into the shaft indicated high levels of toxic gas. Authorities admitted the chances of finding all the men alive had virtually one, five days after an explosion tore through the colliery, with a toxic, potentially flammable, cocktail of gases meaning it remains too risky to go into the mine.
Yet we hear the mayor of the Grey District to say people through media that, there is still cling to hope. And “We have got families there hoping for a miracle and until someone shows us a body we are hoping for a miracle like Chile” added Tony Shoehorn. Media dependency theory and Chile’s mining accident: Theorist Melvin Edifier and Sandra Ball-Reach have focused on why people are dependent on the media; why the media sometimes have direct, powerful effects, sometimes less direct, less powerful effects on audience launching their theory Media dependency. I think, this theory is the most powerful among all of the theories.
Because, this theory requires mass audience who has thirst for information and this thirst will only be met up by media. So they have to depend on various kinds of mass media. As this news is one of the most important news of 2010, so people are generally keen to know the update. And for more authentic and sufficient information, the worldwide audience had no option except doing depend on international media. Technological determinism and Chile’s mining accident: The main theme of this theory is technology, which leads the social change – technology is seen as ‘the prime mover’ in history.
Technical developments, communications technologies or media are the prime cause of change in society. There are many people who doesn’t read newspaper or watch news, but use social network sites like faceable, twitter etc. It may happen that somebody can give a status or tweet about a news event before covering and exposing it in media. So people will come to know about the event through internet or other genealogy based media source. And then they will be curious to know further information. During Chile’s mine accident and its rescue program people who were present their, were updating new tweets describing the condition. BBC World Service correspondent Piers Schoolchild tweets the increasing speed of the rescues: “imines seconds for the last ascent! #schlemiel”. Mining Minister Laurence Collarbone – who has been a constant presence throughout the crisis – has tweeted in celebration: “The last rescuer has gone up. Now we can say that team, with the company of the whole country, rescued our 3 miners in just 77 days. We did it! ” Roberto Saa, a Chilean journalist for local TV station TV, tweets: “All the drill technicians are leaving the camp and honking their horns.