Knowing Your Audience: Chilean Mine Disaster
Kelli Russ
BCOM/275
01/27/2014
Toya L. Bligen

Knowing Your Audience: Chilean Mine Disaster

It is important to understand your audience when delivering messages. This is a vital importance when delivering messages that deal with a catastrophic incident like the Chilean mine disaster of 2010. It is important that the messages that are received are clear, concise and release pertinent information to the parties involved. There are many different people involved in situations like this; there are the rescues personal, employees of the company involved, families, clergy, news reporters and emergency medical personal who all need different parts of information to perform their efficiently.
“The key to effective communication is shared understanding of the information.” (Cheesebro, O'connor, & Riso, “Chapter 1: Communication Concepts, Communication Defined” 2010). Different people will react to this news in varied ways. The rescuers will want to know the specifics like what actually happened, how many people were involved, what supplies they may have available, and what are the safety procedures they have in place. They will need as much information as is available. “Officials said the roof of the main ramp down into mine was thought to have collapsed around 100m (328ft) above the miners' heads” ("Chile mine collapse traps 34 miners", 2010). This is the type of information that the rescuers need to be aware of when making judgments about how to rescue the miners. The families of the miner will be looking for a different type of message. They will want to know who is trapped, what the status of the miners is and what is being done to bring the miners home. Reported by BBC "We hope they are all fine, but we are also angry because we have no information about our relatives," one woman said ("Chile mine