Knowing Your Audience

Knowing Your Audience

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BCOM/275

Knowing Your Audience

On August 5, 2010, in Chile there was a cave-in in a little copper mine that trapped thirty-three miners three hundred meters underground with limited food, water, and oxygen. No one knew for certain whether or not the miners had survived the cave-in and if they had if they would survive long enough to be rescued. Four days after the cave-in, with rescue crews working around the clock, it was still unknown whether or not anyone had survived. There were no previous incidents in which miners had survived underground for an extended period of time according to Yang, 2010. Fortunately, to everyone’s amazement all of the miners made it out alive and this horrible incident went down in history without claiming a single life.

Not a single person ever actually knows how a situation like this is going to turn out until it happens. The company that the miners work for has to inform the families that their loved ones are trapped underground. They also have to inform their workers as to what has occurred and what is going on. There is preparation for these situations, but even if drills are practiced over and over there is nothing that can truly prepare a person for an event like this. Communication in a situation like this has to be done very carefully and the audience has to be considered. The people communicating the message have to remember that these are loved ones, friends, and co-workers that are receiving this message so they have to take great care with the use of body language and wording not to convey the wrong message in stressful time such as this. Communication in an event like this has should convey a few possible scenarios and let loved ones know what if anything they can do to help. Communication to employees should inform employees of the current situation.

A lot of thought needs to go into messages that are to be sent to relatives of the workers that have been trapped, because one must remember that this is hard for them. They do not know whether or not they will ever see their loved one again. When no thought is put into a communication in a situation like this the message maybe misunderstood and thought to be cold and insensitive. In this case a sense of empathy should be used, think about what it would be like to be in that person’s shoes. The person conveying the message must be sympathetic to the receivers feelings. Communication must be made immediately so that relatives do not learn of their loved ones situation on CNN or something similar. They will want to know what efforts are being made to save their loved ones as well as what the chances are of their loved ones making it out alive. This kind of situation is hard for any employer or law enforcement agency and rescue workers as they need to keep relatives up to speed.

Communication with workers will differ somewhat, because while yes these people that are trapped may be friends and they are definitely co-workers, these people already know the dangers that they face from day to day and that there is always a possibility of a cave-in. So it will not be necessary to explain all of this to the workers. The message must convey the importance of safety on the job and the severity of the situation. The message must also state the possibility of the rescue of the miners and must also try to build the workers confidence in the situation, because they are probably scared that it might happen to them. The workers may have never been through something like this and may be scared away from the job.

Every part of the message in both cases must be thoroughly thought out, because of possible cultural differences and language differences. It must also be thought out because body language can give the wrong message and thus must be controlled. Empathy and sympathy are important to remember when someone’s loved one may be hurt or even dead. You do not want you message to be misunderstood or thought of as insensitive. This is why knowing your audience is so important.

References

Weik, J. (2010). Over 30 workers trapped after chilean mine collapse. Manuscript submitted for

publication, Library, University of Phoenix, Phoenix, Arizona. Retrieved September 4, 2011, from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/ehost/detail?sid=84e3b3de-0140-

Yang, J. (2010). From collapse to rescue: inside the chile mine. The Star, Retrieved September 5, 2011, from http://www.thestar.com/news/world/chile/article/873382

References: Weik, J. (2010). Over 30 workers trapped after chilean mine collapse. Manuscript submitted for publication, Library, University of Phoenix, Phoenix, Arizona. Retrieved September 4, 2011, from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/ehost/detail?sid=84e3b3de-0140- Yang, J. (2010). From collapse to rescue: inside the chile mine. The Star, Retrieved September 5, 2011, from http://www.thestar.com/news/world/chile/article/873382