18 Chileans underground are worth more air-time than the 500 that were killed in an earthquake?

I find the ABC's Media Watch to be one of the most poignant shows but I can't manage to pin it down to just any one reason; I'm not sure whether it's the unrivalled depth of research, or the ultra sharp eye with which they notice flawed reporting, or even just the grand observations that they make, but the effect that they have on their audience is not by any means a light one. Since having started watching, I am now far more sceptical and even more likely to pick up manipulations of the truth.

An example of this that really sticks with me – most likely as it was a concept that we recently studied as a class – is that of 'newsworthiness', that is, what makes one story more worthy of reporting than another; what characteristics or traits does it posses to make it more likely to draw readers or viewers over any other?

In the episode that aired on the 18th of October, the majority of the airing time was devoted to the rescue of miners from the Chilean mine collapse that occurred on the 5th of August 2010 and the consequential rescue mission.



Media Watch host Paul Barry points out that in multiple reports delivered by the media - and even one press release from the Chilean president - on the trapped miners, it is said to be the first news of significance to emerge from the nation in decades; contradictory to this, Barry points out that at the beginning of this year, nearly 500 people were killed when an earthquake hit chile. He also proceeds to speak of the dedication that the BBC pledged towards the miners by sacrificing much of their budget for foreign correspondents by instead using it to send more journalists to the rescue sight that was already being covered by more than 2000 reporters from around the world.


It is quite safe to say that this news was far further reported by these agencies as it is a far rarer story to have people trapped underground for such time and still be rescued in good health. this type of 'feel-good' story is also being pushed very hard by the PR department of the Chilean government as it demonstrates the length to which the government went to rescue even people that are low on the socio-economic scale.
Similarly, there is a prescribed number of features that can make one crime more worthwhile to report than another; according to the "News Manual" (a "professional resource for journalists"). It has to be highly personalised not only in the way that the story is written, but also in the type of crime that was committed (it must appear possible for any reader to have had it happen to them). an example of this is the reporting of random kidnappings or attacks (that have no particular targeted demographic) such as the Skaf Brothers rape cases which targeted women in general rather than women of a specific-age or nationality.