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CHAPTER
III:
TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN AND GIRLS ANDTHE
PRINT MEDIA
Saroj Pant
3.1 Introduction
Trafficking in women and girls for prostitution (hereafter called the
trafficking) has become a run-of-the-mill topic in the print media. Almost
everyday newspapers publish about rescue and return of some minors from
brothels at India or about the arrest of some culprits crossing the border
along with some girls to be sold. The people never get shocked reading
about the trafficking. Why is this so? Probably because the media has
tediously presented the same stuff over many years so that the people
have stopped to be susceptible on this matter. In fact, the media is just
giving some glimpses of an extremely complex phenomenon which is buttressed
by historical tradition and cultural attitudes as well as present day
consumerism, migration pattern and tourism (Rozario, 1988).
After the restoration of democracy in April, 1990, the media coverage
on the trafficking seems to be increased at once (Table 3.5 and Table
3.6). This was not because the print media has become more conscious about
the issue overnight, but this was because the number of newspapers has
increased manifold taking advantage of the open environment and the same
news about the trafficking is published in several newspapers at a time.
The pattern of putting the issue of trafficking in the print media has
remained the same. The print media still depends largely on the police
report, statement of the victims rescued from red-light areas at India,
NGO activists and seminars for the source of information. On the other
hand, the facts and figures on trafficking that frequently come in the
press are generally filled with exaggeration, speculation, conjectural
statements, assumptions and even with emotions.
Though there has been a lot of hue and cry about the existence of a strong
mafia network of traffickers, the media personnel do not take risk to
probe into the underworld of victimizers. Therefore, investigation is
usually done in the victims' place of origin, not in the place of destination
where the victims are forced into sex slavery. Most of the items produced
by the print media are victim-focused rather victimizer-focused. They
give details of the agony of the exploited women and the exploiters are
unseen most of the time.
This chapter presents the review of the materials regarding the trafficking
produced by the print media. In this study, newspapers and magazines with
mass circulation are considered as the print media as well as some specialized
journals are also taken. The 'created reality' about trafficking produced
by the media is presented in this chapter and whether that is near to
'reality' or not is also examined through comparative study. How does
the print media project the issue of trafficking is scrutinized here.
The main objective of this chapter is to analyze the presentation of the
issue of trafficking in the print media and to find out what is lacking
in the presentation. This chapter is also intended to offer what ought
to be done in the sector of print media for the abolition of trafficking.
3.2 Conceptual Framework and Organization of the Study
This study does not apply any theoretical framework to state the research
problem, rather it applies a combination of several concepts. There is
not any theory, epistemology and methodology developed in journalism for
monitoring the media. However, there are some definite propositions which
can determine the exemplary piece of writing in the print media. To be
an exemplary piece of writing, it should contain the qualities as objectivity,
verifiability (i. e., giving reference to the sources of information)
and a sense of social responsibility (Kamath, 1986: passim, Wainwright,
1986: passim). These features were kept in mind while analyzing the sample
of the study.
Secondly, feminists have developed media monitoring (media watch) methods
in which the materials produced in the mainstream media are analyzed from
feminist perspective. They seek for proper representation and access of
women in the media and analyze how women are portrayed in the media (MediaWatch,
1995, Gallagher and Euler, 1996). The media monitoring also includes following
aspects in its analysis:
Selection of the items
- Who is responsible for the selection of the items related to women?
- What kind of women related news are given prime importance?
Causes of selection and presentation
- Why the item is selected for publishing and why is it presented in
the way as it is presented?
Presentation
- How the issue related to women is presented in the media?
Placement
- Where the women related items are placed (i.e., in which page and column)?
Language, photographs and illustrations
- What kind of language, photographs and illustrations are used in the
items related to women and women issues?
Based on the above discussion, the researcher realizes that the study
should include the following aspects in it:
- institutional structure of the print media;
- the trafficking as presented by the print media;
- the use of language and photograph in the items related to the trafficking;
- sources of information; and
- focused topics and focused groups.
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