Knowing Your Audience

Knowing Your Audience

On August 5, 2010, over 30 miners were trapped at a depth of nearly 300 meters due to a cave-in in the San Jose mine, located in northern Chile. For four days, the miners were confined with limited food, water, and oxygen. After a second cave-in two days later rescuers were forced to suspend the aid for several hours. More than two months after the collapse the miners were saved when a rescue hole was finally completed. (Weik, 2010) (Yang, 2010)

I am sure that no one wakes up in the morning and heads out the door to work thinking that something so devastating could happen to themself, a family member, or a friend. When it does happen, what kinds of actions are taken by management on how they will communicate this information and what exactly will they say? This paper will offer thoughts to remember given the diverse roles and individuals in the audience, the possible necessities of the families of the miners in getting a message about the occurrence, the possible needs of the company's employees when getting a message about this occurrence, and finally the actions that must be engaged before and after the message is conveyed to ensure that it was received as planned.

There are some considerations to remember given the different roles and people in the audience that include the families and the other mining employees. If the audience is not taken into consideration the message could be misinterpreted or even incomplete. It is important that the correct tone as well as wording is used to relay the information. Due to the nature of the information, emotions should definitely be considered when addressing the family members as well as co-workers.

The potential needs of the families of the miners in receiving a message about this incident should go into detail about what occurred, when it occurred, if known how it occurred, and where it took place. There is not a doubt that this audience will be filled with emotions. There should be an open line of communication where family members have a way to stay updated at all times during the rescue attempt. Last, but not least, the management should keep reassuring the loved ones that by all means necessary they are taking all precautions and essential action to ensure that the miners are rescued alive.

The potential needs of the company's employees when receiving a message about this incident. Although, some of the employees may consider the trapped miners as family, the company must use a slightly different approach in dealing with employees that are more than likely frightened or just plain scared. This audience needs to be addressed in a more formal way. The employees do not need to be briefed in details of what happened or is taken place they just need to have a quick update of what happened, how the company is planning on dealing with the situation, and most importantly reassurance that this incident was