Global Journal of Human-Social Science, A: Arts and Humanities, Volume 22 Issue 4

society. The media also has the capacity for educating individuals and society on the hazards of involving in human trafficking and other associated crimes as well as the consequences of these crimes. Njoku (1994) reiterates that the media is very well known for its surveillance function through the monitoring of events and reporting them to the appropriate audience. In the issue of human trafficking, he affirmed that, the media is making a lot of efforts in reporting news stories about the phenomenon and creating awareness about its sudden upsurge. For example, educating parents on the dangers of sending their children away to guardians and foster parents. But a lot more needs to be done by media reports on apprehended culprits of human trafficking; and that the report should not be allowed to fade into obscurity as a result of political and financial challenges. Such reports should be followed up; the trails of these cases should be followed until it gets to its logical conclusion. Leighley (2004) remarks that apart from shaping the perspective of individuals, institutions and society, the mass media further functions as a determinant of the issue(s) to which government would attend. It is known that whenever issues/events are exposed in the public space as news, the citizenry and the government of the day becomes conscious of the problems and issues raised. Consequently, the government swings into action to address the situation in tandem with its constitutional purpose of societal good for all and the state. This response of the government is however hugely dependent on the degree of prominence accorded the issues and events at hand by the mass media. In this sense, the mass media decides and regulates what and what issues will be attended to by the government or otherwise (Leighley, 2004). It is therefore the extent of the prominence of attention the media gives to human trafficking stories, viz - a - viz other issues that would determine the public response, value and the attention that society would place on the stories. As expected, the general public awaits the media to enlighten and update them to understand the issue of human trafficking. Thus, the media wields the power to influence public learning and to dictate the opinion of the public through the news and language expressed and shared (Borer, 2015; Wallinger, 2010). The function of the mass media is therefore important for the promotion of responsiveness and precisely notifying the community on issues of trading in human beings. The principal purpose is to battle and avert this phenomenon and sensitizing society on the potential risks as a problem threatening all citizens (Esdras, 2016). c) Media Coverage of Human Trafficking Media attention on the issue of trafficking in human beings has grown progressively since the setting in of the new millennium. The coverage of the subject matter by the broadcast and print industry further increased from around the year 2005 and has continued to increase continually since that time (Farrell & Fahy, 2009; Austin & Farrell, 2017). The media is a powerful force when it comes to developing our understanding of the world, and human trafficking is not exempt. While different forms of news transmittance are being utilized, newspapers are still important in shaping what we, as a society, understand about social issues. Social issues and their presentation in media matter because they influence public interests, perceptions, and positions (Smith, 2019; Curtis, 2012). Irrespective of the problematic nature of human trafficking, scholars have assessed media coverage/ framing of human trafficking in several countries and across different news media. Studies on media coverage of human trafficking has been conducted globally and locally, which includes but not limited to the following researches (Farrell & Fahy, 2009; Nkememena, 2009; Pajnik, 2010; Gulati, 2011; Egbo, 2011; Marchionni, 2012; Johnson, Friedman & Shafer, 2014; Borer, 2015; Stanford, Martizez & Weitzer, 2016). Researches that have explored media coverage of human trafficking, showed that newspapers gave significant attention to issues on human trafficking, even as they fail to offer adequate explanations to trafficking issues in general (Marchionni, 2012; Sobel, 2014; Borer, 2015; Stanford et. al., 2016; Gregorious & Ras, 2018). Sobel (2014) studied the English- language news coverage of human trafficking in the USA, India, and Thailand and found out that there was an increased in the volume of coverage of the issue after the treaty, was more localized. Also, Borer (2015) examined media coverage of trafficking in human beings and the study showed plenty of related messages on trafficking inside the print industry. Stanford et. al. (2016) expanded an earlier work of Gulati’s 1980-2006 time period which was a content analysis of news reports on trafficking in persons published by the New York Times and the Washington Post during the period 2012-2013. Their research established that there was an increase in the number of articles published each year compared to Gulati’s study. While Gregoriou and Ras (2018) study found that UK newspaper coverage of human trafficking steadily increased between the year of 2000 and 2016. These findings contrasted with that of Nkememena (2009) who studied two Nigerian newspapers ( Daily Sun and Vanguard ) over a period of twelve months. Findings from the study revealed that the selected newspapers did not give adequate consideration to the evils of trafficking. This is due to the low incidence scores ranging between 1-5 times in media reports concerning child trafficking with less magnitude accorded to news stories in the sampled newspapers. Sanders and Godoy (2002) opined that there is need to increase societal awareness concerning issues that may affect children Volume XXII Issue IV Version I 50 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 © 2022 Global Journals A A Content Analysis of Newspapers’ Coverage of Human Trafficking in Nigeria