CNN receives Media Tenor’s Special Award: Human Trafficking

EMBARGOED UNTIL 6PM, OCTOBER 23.

Berlin. October 23, 2013. CNN Interenational was honored tonight during Media Tenor's 14^th International Agenda Setting Conference at the German parliament for its consistent and awareness-raising reporting on human trafficking issues in the last year.

Despite commendable efforts from leading NGOs, governments, and human rights groups, the general public is still largely uninformed about the global reach and practice of human trafficking, also known as the global trade of humans, most commonly for the purpose of sexual slavery, forced labor, or the extraction of organs and tissues. However, journalists and opinion-leading media, also play a critical role in breaking the attention barrier of low salience issues. Thus, Media Tenor chose to recognize those media that are raising needed awareness regarding trafficking.

Media Tenor analyzed over 50,000 news reports on 37 global TV news programs and three opinion-leading print media and found that CNN’s Hala Gorani was the most vocal in featuring reports about human trafficking as part of their Freedom Project aired during primetime news segments. Journalists Marion von Haaren of ARD Tagesschau in Germany and Leigh Sales of ABC 7:30 in Australia followed closely in achieving the most reporting.

More in-depth analysis of the media showed that although human trafficking has become more visible in the first eight months of 2013, compared to the whole of 2012, the issue continues to be drowned out by higher volumes of reports on party politics, terrorism, and international conflict.

In addition, global media rarely reflects the reality of global trafficking activity, as news reports focus more on anti-trafficking legislation in the European Union, rather than the individual countries that are the source of trafficking networks, such as Bulgaria. Similarly in the U.S., 14,000 to 17,000 estimated persons trafficked into the country yearly too often go unnoticed by the media.

For over 20 years Media Tenor's mission has been to contribute to objective, diverse and newsworthy news by bringing together the diverse parties who both impact and are affected by the news. Media Tenor's global research projects include analyses of election campaigns, investor relations, public diplomacy, corporate communications and other topics critical to news makers and news audiences. The annual Agenda Setting Conference brings together these diverse constituencies for data-driven workshops, panels, case studies and keynote speeches.