Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Many people around the globe have followed the rescue efforts in Chile online, on their radios, and on TV. Some have called this a real reality show but that can’t be the only reason for the universal appeal of this story. Brian Stelter is a reporter with the New York Times, and is one of the writers of that paper’s Media Decoder blog. Lisa Mullins talks with him. Download MP3

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

LISA MULLINS: The images from the miners’ rescue have captivated TV viewers all over the globe for the past 24 hours. Many viewers are still, right now, glued to their screens, watching closely as one miner after another emerges. Some have called this real-life reality TV. And more than 1,400 journalists are at the mine to cover it. Brian Stelter writes the Media Decoder blog for the New York Times. He says at the top of this media food chain is the Chilean government itself.

BRIAN STELTER:  This is essentially an event that’s been produced by the Chilean government. The only real great views of the mine and of the families and of the rescuers are coming from the government. There are no external cameras allowed. We do see these distant far away shots. Those are actually provided by the networks themselves. Those cameras are not subject to government control. But most of the pictures are. And I’m a bit surprised that the networks have [INDISCERNIBLE] over so much air time to pictures that are being controlled by the government of the country.

MULLINS:  And so if you’re saying that the government has really manipulated this, what for and didn’t it really take a big gamble because this didn’t necessarily have to turn out as well as, at least so far, it has?

STELTER: That’s absolutely the case. The president of Chile has staked his reputation, and indeed his presidency, on this story. And that might go a long way toward explaining why the Chilean state television network has been bringing us all of these pictures from the scene of the mine. Reporters have pointed out that the Chilean president was looking pretty unpopular in polls, he has been criticized for a poor performance after an earthquake in Chile earlier this year, and that this has really changed his fortunes personally in the country. And that goes a long way, I think, toward explaining the amount of attention in the country on this story.

MULLINS: Although you yourself in your blog quote Kerry Sanders, an NBC news correspondent, who said on MSNBC, I think we need this, meaning the rescue, as a world. We need…

STELTER: As a world. We need this as a world. I was struck by that.

MULLINS: So that’s not just about the government maybe highlighting this and trying to hype it as much as it can. But this is the rest of us who are paying real attention.

STELTER: That’s absolutely true. And it’s interesting on a number of levels, interesting emotionally. It’s also interesting as a soap opera because we know about the families and in some cases we know that there’s maybe multiple women waiting for these miners above ground. It’s interesting too from a psychological point of view. We all wonder how we would behave if left underground for weeks and weeks at a time. There are many layers [INDISCERNIBLE] to this story and that’s the reason why the world’s been captivated by it.

MULLINS: Not to just keep putting you in the bad seat Brian, but when it comes to the miners themselves as they surface, this would seem to be anything but reality TV unless we choose to make it that way because they are not acting. Could there be a more stripped down showing of essential emotion than for these men who are surfacing after two months in the ground?

STELTER: I would say that’s true with one asterisk. And that would be the fact that they received some media training while in the mine about how to handle interviewers. I would think that that second miner who came up, who handed the rocks to the Chilean president, to me that was – I don’t want to say it felt staged, but to me that was the most camera friendly moment by a miner. And it’s the kind of thing that you can imagine maybe thinking about when you have 69 days underground. To figure out what you’re going to do when you come above ground. I do agree that much of this is raw emotion and when you think about it from that point of view, life is a struggle against death, life is a struggle to delay death as humanly possible and that’s what this story is in its essence.

MULLINS: Are you not captivated by much of this Brian yourself?

STELTER: I was up ‘till 3am watching. And up again at 7.

MULLINS: And you’ll be up again tonight.

STELTER: I’ll be up again tonight. And if we’re lucky, this thing will wrap up in time for the morning shows on Thursday in America.

MULLINS: Brian Stelter writes for The New York Times’ Media Decoder blog. We’re going to make a link on our website, Brian, as well. Thanks. Nice to talk to you.

STELTER: Thank you.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.