In the news: Extensive coverage of Chilean miner rescue is disconcerting when media companies are cutting budgets

An article by Jeremy Littau, assistant professor of journalism and communication, on the media’s coverage of the rescue of 33 Chilean miners, has been published by the Huffington Post, one of the largest Internet news sites in the U.S.

In “Chile Is a Story About Journalism’s Failure,” Littau writes that it “is a little disconcerting in an era of closed foreign bureaus and budget cutbacks…to know that 1,300 journalists have descended on this mining town to cover a worldwide story.”

Littau, whose research interests include the growth of social media, has received more than 4,200 hits, or responses to the article, in the three days since he posted it to his blog.

The Chilean miners were trapped 2,100 feet underground after the San Jose gold and copper mine in Copiapo in northern Chile collapsed Aug. 5. All 33 were rescued and brought to the surface last week, 70 days after the collapse.

Littau won the 2010 Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) earlier this year for his Ph.D. thesis, which examined groups of online users, including blogging communities and discussion boards.