On October 12, 2010, all the news around the world where focused on Chile, for the rescuing of the 33 miners trapped for 68 days at 700 meters of depth.
This news set records for TV and online audience. Fox News had an audience of 7.1 million - about twice their normal, and CNN had 2.7 million. More than 6.8 million people tuned into BBC's 24-hour news channel, The Guardian newspaper reported. The mainstream media gave extensive coverage online, in the case of CNN and BBC they had 5 and 8 million hits.
Social networks were also very active. Social media buzz peaked at about the same time as T.V. viewership; approximately 104,000 messages per hour were sent via Twitter. The word “Chile” was mentioned over 670.000 times, and in you tube, 16.000 videos were tagged as “Chile” and “miners”.
The verdict: a draw between professional media and amateurs
Professional and amateur media played an important role in the spread and impact of news, reports, networking, giving different points of view. There was a feedback loop never seen before, given the outstanding features of the event. This tragedy is similar to a classic script, with a dramatic beginning, an emotional peak (after the miracle of finding people alive at 700 m depth), and an spectacular ending with the rescue.
Newspapers and their websites, as well as social network users, had some intense days publishing content traffic. I guess that after this event, many media will take seriously the need of multimedia design and real-time reports generation in visual notes and computer graphics. Meanwhile, amateur users will keep realizing the innumerable and valuable information tools they have in their hands to contribute in communications.
Statistic source: http://mashable.com/2010/10/18/chilean-miners-rescue-news-numbers/
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