Toward Journalism on Human Trafficking That is Trauma-Informed, Hope-Based, and Solutions-Oriented

ABSTRACT

Developments in related practices termed solutions journalism or constructive journalism and scholarship on those journalistic practices hold significant promise for improving journalism on human trafficking but have yet to be engaged robustly by either journalists or scholars of journalism on human trafficking (HT). This commentary article reviews recent scholarship on constructive journalism considering patterns in media framing of human trafficking that have been established over the last two decades through studies of HT journalism. It highlights several open-access resources designed to catalyze better journalism on human trafficking that could be utilized fruitfully to improve journalism education and expand research on human trafficking journalism.

KEYWORDS:

• Media frames
• agenda-setting
• solutions journalism
• constructive journalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.