Human trafficking is a big news topic, especially when cases of it arise locally. ABC News, CBS Local Media, and NBC News are three of the big news websites that cover a large portion of the human trafficking issue worldwide.
News stations like CNN and WBTW also cover the issue on television. Local news stations cover the local stories and important global news on the topic. But like many human rights topics, human trafficking gets a fair amount of coverage through social media. Video's and TV specials on human trafficking victims and survivors go viral on social media websites like Facebook and YouTube. On the left is an example of an under cover human trafficking video from YouTube that was shared on Facebook that has over 1.3 million views.
Public Awareness
The general public receives their information about human trafficking from what they hear in the news and what social media tells them about the topic. Most people do not research the issue for themselves. Because of this, most people believe that it only involves sex trafficking and that women and children are the only ones being victimized. Although this is true for a majority of cases, many men are victimized and human trafficking involves labor trafficking, organ harvesting, and child soldiers too. The public's opinion is strongly against human trafficking with most people agreeing that it needs to be stopped. But the vast majority of the public is either not aware of the problem, the scope of the issue, how to recognize it when it happens around you, or how to stop it from happening. The public needs to be informed on the issue and there are a number of books and upstanding publications by prominent academia who discuss the topic and explain the in's and out's of human trafficking.