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ABSTRACT
This quantitative content analysis uses sex trafficking as a case study to understand how news reporting techniques evolve as a social problem emerges on the public agenda. Results indicate that as news organizations became more experienced in covering trafficking and the public made more aware of trafficking as a social issue, journalists moved from routines that favored official perspectives and frames that concentrated on individuals, to the sociocultural level, in which knowledgeable sources attempted to explain why trafficking occurs, and to an institutional level, in which strategies for intervention were proposed and debated. In this way, the newsworthiness of trafficking is sustained.
Disclosure Statement
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Meghan Sobel
Dr. Meghan Sobel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Regis University. Dr. Sobel’s professional experience includes work with anti-human trafficking organizations in Thailand and the United States Department of State in Malawi. Her research interests focus on international communication, public diplomacy, and the role of media in combatting human rights abuses and humanitarian crises. She teaches courses on global communication, public relations, and human rights advocacy. She earned her PhD at the University of North Carolina School of Media and Journalism.
Barbara Friedman
Dr. Barbara Friedman is an Associate Professor in the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Media and Journalism, where her research and teaching focus on media and race, class, and gender and media history. She is co-director of The Irina Project (TIP), which monitors and studies media coverage of sex trafficking and provides journalists with resources for accurate and responsible reporting of the issue. She earned her PhD at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
Anne Johnston
Dr. Anne Johnston is Howard and Hallie McLean Parker Distinguished Professor and Academic Dean in the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Media and Journalism, where her teaching and research interests include the media’s coverage of sex trafficking, political communication, and gender representation in the media. She is co-director of The Irina Project (TIP), which monitors and studies media coverage of sex trafficking and provides journalists with resources for accurate and responsible reporting of the issue. She earned her PhD at the University of Oklahoma.