tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9192922.post9174325731074171939..comments2024-03-26T07:51:43.186+00:00Comments on Mabinogogiblog: Chilean Miners: Media only does human interest, cannot handle reasonDocRichardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08903964792092284406noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9192922.post-52383083006153567512010-10-16T13:42:18.105+01:002010-10-16T13:42:18.105+01:00OK, I said it was great that the 31 were rescued. ...OK, I said it was great that the 31 were rescued. But will we get equal coverage for the 17 chines and the - 4 was it? - other S American miners who are currently trapped.<br /><br />Chile was media overkill. 27 BBC staffers there, 24 hour coverage, with journalists reduced to interviewing each other in the slack hours. Always a bad sign.<br /><br />Can we agree that it would be nice if the journalists did their human interest thing, but used the slack hours to dilate people's knowledge of the statistics of mining accidents, talk to experts in mining safety, and the way of reducing mining demand through better recycling? That kind of thing. Knowledge. Information. Intelligence.<br /><br />"Educate, inform, entertain".DocRichardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08903964792092284406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9192922.post-83249398079932072422010-10-16T13:35:16.954+01:002010-10-16T13:35:16.954+01:00Hmmmm.... But the story of 'why' the mine ...Hmmmm.... But the story of 'why' the mine caved in is one of 'Economics' and the story of how they are rescued is one of science, politics, engineering and teamwork.<br /><br />I don't see any problem in using 'human interest' to link into wider stories and news themes. It would be a funny old world if people weren't interested in other humans ?<br /><br />After all, the whole point of the holocaust was to transfer humans from people to being statistics.<br /><br />'One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic'. 'Who remembers the Armenians'. And so on. Just like the girl in the red coat in Schindler's List, it is not cheap or shallow to want to find a way to make personal and specific the wider tragedy.<br /><br />Or would you stop people reading "Anne Frank's Diary" for a similar reason ? If nothing else, this did put a bit of a spotlight on the dangers of mining, although it took The World Tonight on Radio 4 to highlight the thousand miners A MONTH who die in mines - statistics which were strangely absent from the TV coverage.<br /><br />Which is maybe your point...<br /><br />word ver - unwooled - how bizarre!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com