The Chilean Copper Mine Collapse

On August 5, 2010 the world watched as reports came in from Chile, a small copper mine caved-in leaving 33 mine workers trapped underground (Weik, 2010). Initial reports did not know if there were any survivors.

It was 17 days before any contact was made with the trapped miners (Hughes, 2010). The family members and the rest of the world were relieved to know that all of the miners had survived the collapse. The mine officials in this terrible disaster had much to consider when addressing the many audiences connected to this disaster.The family members, the media, and the mine employees would all have to be addresd in different ways. The family members would be the number one priority concerning communicating with the different audiences involved with this incident.

The ethos from the elements of persuasion should be used when addressing the potential needs of the family. To start this process, a person would need to know the demographic composition of the family members, for example; the age, gender, race, religious believes, financial status, and ethnicity.The person communicating with the family should show competence, empathy, and honesty. Simply put one should be trustworthy and compassionate. The person communicating with the family members should also realize that each family needs may be different. Some families may need financial assistance, whereas others may need spiritual counseling to cope with the incident.

Keeping the families updated with the most current information will be key threw out the incident. The families will need to know the person communicating with them is competent and honest.One should gather the most recent information from a credible source when updating the families concerning the incident. Empathy should be the biggest thing a person shows the family members, they will need this most of all. The family should know that someone cares about them and their loved ones trapped in the mine.

Taking on the grief of the families will let them know that a person really cares. All the needs of the family members should be discussed face to face. The employees working at the company where the incident occurred should be the next priority.When addressing the employees a person should use a combination of all three elements of persuasion logos, pathos, and ethos. A person using logos persuasion would logical appeal to address some of the needs of the employees.

The employees would need to be reassured that everything is going to be ok. The employees would have just as many questions as the general public if they were not directly involved in the incident. A person should use pathos persuasion to address the employees with an emotional appeal to evoke a sense pride and responsibility. The employees may also require emotional and spiritual counseling.

The employees should also be informed about the finical status of the company, because the accident the mine will probably be closed down. The employees will most likely require finical support. In March 2007 the mine was closed following a fatal accident (Weik, 2010) With an incident like a mine collapse the employees should receive additional safety training before returning back to work for the company. The media would be the final audience to address.

With today’s technology there are so many different types of media to consider, for example television, radio, newspaper, and the Internet.With the whole world watching and waiting for information concerning the mining collapse, the person releasing information to the media would have to be very careful. Any wrong information released could be devastating. In January 2006 at the Sago Coal Mine in West Virginia there was a mining explosion. Mistaken information that 12 of 13 miners trapped in the coal mine had been saved, when in fact only one survived and twelve were dead (Doa & Newman, 2006).

The person responsible for giving information to the media about the incident should make sure all facts are correct.On October 13, 2010 the miners trapped in the collapse were recused. A total of two months had gone by since the accident trapping the miners. During those two months there was a large amount of communication between the San Jose mine officials and the different audiences connected to the mining incident. The individuals given the task of communicating would have needed to checks all the fact before talking to anyone and after the message had been delivered, he or she would have needed to follow up to make sure the message was received as intended.