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Dr Nina Muždeka explains what she will examine in her research

As a complex issue, transnational human trafficking invites  debate facilitated by the role of media as both a contemporary watchdog and a modern forum for showcasing diverse viewpoints. In the analysis of the transnational human trafficking coverage in the news media within the domain of narrative theory and the theoretical framework of poststructuralism, the following two aspects appear to be crucial:

(1)  The role of news media, as a forum for expressing different opinions in relation to the causes and solutions to human trafficking, in the construction of public opinion and response to the issue, as well as in the formation and implementation of policy on human trafficking, exemplified by the choices they make in reporting on the issue, and

(2)  The application of the contemporary narrative theory to the analysis of news media texts as means to construct meaning and reality, which details and explains the importance of the process of story-telling and the structural elements of the narrative (such as plot, voice, point of view) as semiotic factors.

The primary source of my part of the research will include ‘hard news’ stories in English and in Serbian - that is, the texts that merely reproduce the facts and figures, pieces of investigative journalism that provide insight or the analysis on the topic, and other examples of journalistic writing, such as features, commentaries, or opinion texts, with the aim to show the role of genre in the analysis of news media texts as narratives. Though not the primary aim of the research, this aspect of the analysis will undoubtedly illustrate the economic factors that direct the present-day journalism towards pure fact reports and away from investigative journalism as a not so cost-efficient genre. Even so, the analysis of the choices made by the media in selecting those facts points to the focus they selected in presenting the issue of transnational human trafficking (e.g. victims, suffering, trafficking routes). Furthermore, the hypothesis of this aspect of research is that news media texts as narratives structure our perception of reality. Through choosing particular narrative strategies, the news media through the process of signification construct meaning and create the taste and preferences of the general audience. In other words, “the stories that seem the most ‘natural’ are the ones to which the media have accustomed us” (Fulton 1).

This stage of the research will also show the dependency of the number of news reports on the significant events, such as court proceedings, arrests or government policy announcements, with the expected conclusion that more focus is placed on the one-sided, ‘official’ point of view at the expense of including alternative views and additional information, such as those pertaining to the social and economic roots of the problem. In this respect, the research will test the claim that, as “an autonomous sphere of social influence, which reports the facts honestly and even-handedly to raise the consciousness of the audience and act as a force for social good” (Stockwell), news media are placing emphasis on objectivity. The impact of the research, in this respect, is to raise awareness, in the domain of general audience, of the necessity to include alternative points of view in news media coverage of transnational human trafficking, including perspectives provided by activists and academics, instead of entirely relying on government sources and other official, establishment-related viewpoints.


References


1.       Fulton, Helen. 2005. “Introduction: The Power of Narrative”. In Helen Fulton, Rosemary Huisman, Julian Murphet, Anne Dunn (eds.) Narrative and Media. 1-8. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


2.       Stockwell, Stephen. 1999. ‘Beyond the Fourth Estate: Democracy, Deliberation and Journalism Theory’. 21(1). 
Australian Journalism Review 38


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