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Human Trafficking in the Media
Global media is obsessed with crime, but human trafficking remains in blind spot
Boston, September 24, 2013: Crime and security issues are among the most covered topics across global TV news programs, accounting for roughly 10 percent of all reports. Yet human trafficking, one of the fastest growing criminal industries worldwide, is still not a priority for opinion-leading media, according to research from Media Tenor International.
“Due to the covert nature of trafficking, it is one of the most underreported crimes,” notes Casey Chancellor, analysts at Media Tenor. “But the crimes the media choose to report on reflect which issues opinion-leaders find most threatening, in turn strongly shaping public perceptions of where resources should be allocated.”
Media Tenor analyzed 85,900 reports on crime across 37 international TV news programs from January 1, 2012 through August 10, 2013 and found that violent crimes such as murder and terrorism clearly dominated the agenda, while the death of rape victims and concerns over espionage caught international media interest in 2013. Human trafficking, which encompasses the crimes of slavery, captivity, and rape, among others, is only mentioned by name once a month across TV news programs, well below the minimum of two to three times a week needed to stand out in a sea of reports focused on international conflicts, scandals and politics.
Interest in the issue from networks such as CNN, ARD Tagesschau and ABC 7.30 in Australia showed an overall increase in reporting from 2012 to 2013, but reports still largely focused on victims and legal action from governments. Overall, the media rarely reflects the reality of global trafficking activity according to data from the UNODC, which identifies parts of Europe and the United States as the main destinations of trafficked persons, while Asia and Russia account for the hot spots in trafficking origin. Global media does not report on activity in the U.S. and mention of Russia is nearly obsolete, accounting for only one percent of all reports from 2012 to 2013.
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