Journalism and Human Rights

How Demographics Drive Media Coverage

John Pollock, John C. Pollock

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138059528
• eBook ISBN: 9781317512707
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Media Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This book is the first collection of original research to explore links between demographics and media coverage of emerging human rights issues. It covers cross-national reporting on human trafficking, HIV/AIDS, water contamination, and child labour; and same-sex marriage, Guantanamo detainee rights, immigration reform, and post-traumatic stress disorder in the United States. The research asks questions such as: What are the principal catalysts that propel rights issues into media agendas? Why do some surface more quickly than others? And how do the demographics of cross-national reporting differ from those driving multi-city US nationwide coverage of rights claims?

Using community structure theory and innovative Media Vector content analysis, the eight chapters of this book reveal three striking patterns that show how differences in female empowerment, social or economic vulnerability, and Midwestern newspaper geographic location, link powerfully with variations in coverage of rights issues. The patterns connecting demographics and rights claims confirm that coverage of human rights can mirror the concerns of stakeholders and vulnerable groups, contrary to conventional assumptions that media typically serve as "guard dogs" reinforcing the interests of political and economic elites.

This book was originally published as a special issue of The Atlantic Journal of Communication.

Part I

Cross-National Coverage of Human Rights

Cross-National Coverage of Human Trafficking: A Community Structure Approach

Kelly Alexandre, Cynthia Sha, John C. Pollock, Kelsey Baier, and Jessica Johnson

Department of Communication Studies The College of New Jersey

A community structure analysis compared cross-national coverage of human trafficking in 250+ word articles in newspapers in 18 countries for a 12-year period: July 27, 2000 to July 27, 2012. The resulting 266 articles were coded for “prominence” and “direction” (“government responsibility,” “society responsibility,” or “balanced/neutral”), then combined into a composite “Media Vector” score for each newspaper (range = .5167 to −.0214). Seventeen of 18 Media Vectors reflected media emphasis on government responsibility to end human trafficking. Pearson correlations identified that two characteristic clusters had significant relationships with media coverage: privilege (the “buffer” hypothesis associates higher levels of privilege with coverage emphasizing government action to reduce human trafficking) and stakeholders (associating larger proportions of groups with a stake in human trafficking with coverage emphasizing government action to reduce it). Pearson correlations revealed that female school life expectancy (r = .478, p = .022), stock of direct foreign investment at home (r = .467, p = .026), broadband subscriptions/100 people (r = −.41, p = .045), and gross domestic product per capita (r = .467, p = .025) all correlated significantly with media coverage of human trafficking. Regression analysis reinforced the role of stakeholders, with stock of direct foreign investment and female school life expectancy significant. Foreign influence and female empowerment matter.

INTRODUCTION

Human sex trafficking is a horrific social problem both domestically and abroad, with estimates of victims in the millions. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has documented the issue as the fastest growing business of organized crime and third-largest criminal enterprise in the world (Hill & Walker-Rodriguez, 2011). The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2012) defines trafficking as the

recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons through threat or use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse or power or vulnerability, or giving payments of benefits to a person in control of the victim for the purpose of exploitation, which includes exploiting the prostitution of others, sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery or similar practices and the removal of organs. (United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, 2003)¹

Although many victims are women and children, men also fall victim to trafficking. Due to the grievous nature and growing prevalence of this problem, this study seeks to explore media coverage of the issue and identify any links between national characteristics and media coverage of human trafficking.

The way that media frame a social issue can influence how the public views that issue and believes the problem should be addressed. In terms of media coverage of human trafficking, two frames are analyzed to determine which is most prominent in newspapers. The government responsibility frame suggests that it is the responsibility of governments to impose harsh punishments on the perpetrators of trafficking in order to end human trafficking. In contrast, the societal responsibility frame suggests that society or nongovernmental groups should be responsible for ending human trafficking and recommends that private organizations increase awareness of the problem and offer support to victims.

This study focuses specifically on cross-national newspaper coverage of human trafficking. It utilizes the community structure approach in its investigation of media coverage, examining how society impacts reporting on human trafficking, by considering two research questions:

RQ1: How much variation is there in cross-national coverage of human trafficking?

RQ2: How closely linked is variation in cross-national coverage of human trafficking with the characteristics of different nations?

To address these research questions, several hypotheses regarding national demographics and media coverage of human trafficking are tested.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Human trafficking has received little scholarly attention in the field of communication studies. Scholarly research is especially scant regarding media coverage of the issue, which should be particularly relevant to the field. Yet trafficking has been explored in greater depth by other fields, such as women and gender studies, sociology, and history.

Multiple searches of the communications studies databases yielded relatively few results. Searching “trafficking” AND “human” in the Communication and Mass Media database returned 44 results, but searching “trafficking” AND “women” in the same database returned only one. Using the terms “trafficking” AND “media” produced just 23 results. In the ComAbstracts, searches using “human” AND “trafficking,” and then “trafficking” AND “women” produced just one article, whereas “trafficking” AND “media” yielded no results. This paucity of citations is especially telling for the communication field because of the recent attention the subject has received from President Obama, who in 2012 declared January “National Human Trafficking Awareness Month” in an effort to raise awareness of the problem (Jesionka, 2012).

One communication studies article examined the world of international web-based marriage agencies, arguing that governments facilitate trafficking of young women and children from economically poor areas to advanced economies and profit in the process (Jones, 2011). Another article discussed the role of journalists in mobilizing global action, citing a panel discussion of the United Nations and 2008 Vienna Forum to Fight Human Trafficking, which focused on media’s role and how it could help advance attention to the issue (Ricchiardi, 2010). In addition, another article documented a photojournalist on a journey to cover human trafficking by conveying South African victims’ stories through the use of visuals, rather than through text, to elicit a stronger reaction from the public (Hamman, 2010). Although some of these studies touched on media and human trafficking, little systematic scholarly analysis was u...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• Preface
• Overview: Illuminating Human Rights: How Demographics Drive Media Coverage
• Part I: Cross-National Coverage of Human Rights
• 1. Cross-National Coverage of Human Trafficking: A Community Structure Approach
• 2. Cross-National Coverage of HIV/AIDS: A Community Structure Approach
• 3. Cross-National Coverage of Water Handling: A Community Structure Approach
• 4. Comparing Coverage of Child Labor and National Characteristics: A Cross-National Exploration
• Part II: Multi-City US Nationwide Coverage of Human Rights
• 5. Nationwide Newspaper Coverage of Same-Sex Marriage: A Community Structure Approach
• 6. Nationwide Newspaper Coverage of Detainee Rights at Guantanamo Bay: A Community Structure Approach
• 7. Nationwide Newspaper Coverage of Immigration Reform: A Community Structure Approach
• 8. Nationwide Newspaper Coverage of Posttraumatic Stress: A Community Structure Approach
• Index