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SEEING HOW HUMAN TRAFFICKING NEWS EFFECTS AN AUDIENCE   

Traditional or Twitter: Seeing How Human Trafficking News Effects an Audience

Trisha Fischer, Eimilie Ford, Zach Kietzmann, 

Mackenzie Mishka and Sabrina Spadoni

Illinois State University

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Abstract

The measure of the human reaction related to human trafficking was presented on two

different platforms; traditional media and social media. The first platform presents the

participants with a Twitter post that contained a news article about human trafficking. Twitter is

a form of social media that has a limited word count, therefore the post had only a glimpse into

what the article was about, but had a link providing the full article. The second platform that was

tested was in a traditional media form. The participants were given the same news article that

was presented in the Twitter post, but this time it was in the form of traditional media, a news

article. The participants received one of two platforms to enable us to compare which had

invoked more fear on the audience. The article “Illinois agency, volunteers join to fight human

trafficking,” derived from Fox News, was chosen to be shown to the participants as the test. In

conclusion, the research resulted in revealing that there is no significant difference in the test

subject’s reaction to reading a news article from its original source or from a post on Twitter. 
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Introduction

The purpose of this study is to determine and understand how people react to seeing

stories about human trafficking on traditional news sources versus on social media. This study

was conducted by having participants take a survey on how they feel toward a traditional news

story compared to a social media news post presented to them. The study involved 304 survey

responses from people of different demographics. 

The study was conducted using a Likert-type questionnaire that contained ten questions

pertaining to how the social media news post versus a traditional news post made participants

feel after reading it. The ten questions from the survey asked participants to measure their

feelings on a scale determining if the subject strongly disagreed or strongly agreed with the

adjectives that described how they reacted to the articles. An example of the adjectives that were

asked on the survey was unafraid or afraid. There were ten questions with this format that varied

in the adjective being used. This style was chosen because it was the best way to measure over

100 different surveys in the most fair and honest way.

Social media has become a world of its own, where people go for different reasons

whether that be entertainment or news (Papadouka, 2016). It is often argued whether or not

social media is a reliable news source. This is argued because it is easy to manipulate posts, as

well as control who views what posts. 

The importance of the study is to research the participant’s reaction of human trafficking

on different platforms and to see if they react differently when reading one form of news over the

other. Our group decided to test between social media and traditional media. The traditional

media that we used is a news article straight from a news source, whereas social media is in the
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form of a simple post on Twitter, with a link to the article’s content. Social media has changed

the way we see and interpret the news. According to research done by Sobel in 2014, the article

states that social media coverage about the issue of human trafficking is focused on blaming

other countries. The article also suggests that the media coverage of the human trafficking topic

is more localized. The voices of the real-life victims are rarely heard. The media portrays what is

going on for the public to react (Sobel, 2014). 

Traditional news sources are more well known for stating facts and sharing information

using data. Social media news outlets can do this as well, however social media tends to be more

known for stating opinions (Ceron, 2015). Social media allows for people to comment their

thoughts and concerns, as well as share posts. This can affect people's reactions to human

trafficking stories they are seeing based on the person they saw sharing the post or comments

they saw regarding the post, not necessarily just showing how people react to the exact post

itself. The relevance of who shared the social media post is because of people's personal

experiences. Someone who has gone through human trafficking and shares a post about it may

have higher chances of having people engage in the post and have people show stronger feelings

compared to a news station sharing a story about it.

According to Johnston’s study in 2014, the news defines human trafficking as a crime

without any ways to prevent it. The news sources will go through the statistics and facts of the

numbers but will not go through how to have successful results . For the news to have the most

effect on the audience and viewers, there needs to be more hands-on content. The social media

sources have a way of personally connecting with the audience over news articles stating facts to

the viewers (Johnston, 2014). 

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With social media being a very prevalent source of news in people’s everyday lives, the

news tends to alter their presentation to be more fit to what the public prefers to view (Ceron,

2015). Many news sources are turning to social media to present their news. This allows for the

public to feel as though they have more of an input on a specific topic. With that being said, we

chose to study if the specific platform of media has an effect on the human reaction of an

important international issue.

Literature Review 

Since the rise of social media, common platforms, such as Twitter, have become a

common news source for its users right alongside traditional media. The issue with this is that

anyone can post to social media about whatever they choose. This decreases the reliability of

sources and raises concerns for the information that the public is being presented and absorbing.

According to a study done by De Shalat in 2014, there are countless reliability issues due to

“media myths.” Media myths can be defined as a piece of information created to spread

misinformation or instill the author’s bias in the reader. Oftentimes media myths are put out by

non-government organizations, but the government can also play a role in diluted information

(De Shalat, 2014). According to the Atlantic Journal of Communication, the majority of Media

Vectors agree that presenting information regarding human trafficking should be the

responsibility of the government (Alexandre, 2014). They believe that without government

emphasis on these issues, there is less driving force for change and more room for instilling fears

in the public. However, the government and traditional media outlets tend to let issues regarding

human-trafficking fall into the shadows. 

Without the support of traditional media, human trafficking issues are more commonly

discussed on social media. Due to the nature of social media, misinformation spreads like
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wildfire. Even though misinformation could have a positive message, it is always negative.

Misinformation is decreasing the overall knowledge of the public (Houston-Kolnik, 2020). A

common form of misinformation is “clickbaiting.” Clickbaiting is when an article is titled so far-

fetched and offtopic from the content, that readers become more intrigued (Bradwell, 2016).

Although clickbait implies the use of technology, the idea of clickbait can be relevant in any

information medium. Oftentimes people skim the headlines and share information before reading

the whole article, adding to the issue of spreading misinformation. The more people

misinformation reaches, the more issues we face in combating public health and safety issues

such as human trafficking. 

Human trafficking has become a rising global issue. However, the majority of people are

incredibly misinformed about the subject area. Factors such as headlines and the tone in which

literature is written all play a role in the spread of misinformation. According to the Journal of

Interpersonal Violence, the best ways to combat misinformation are to “[Engage] in informative

conversations, [utilize] social media to educate, and [promote] media messages of survivor

agency,” (Houston-Kolnik, 2020). Social media is ever-growing and will, over time, continue to

become a larger source of information. The first step in combating the growth of human

trafficking comes from educating people properly and diminishing the spread of misinformation.

Properly laying out the facts of the issue and allowing members of society to feel equally

prepared for a human trafficking issue, will flatten the misinformation curve immensely

(Johnston, 2012). 

Additionally, there is a common xenophobic misunderstanding that the majority of

human trafficking takes place overseas, however, that is not the case (Skrodzka, 2018). This

inaccurate mindset mediates a sense of “otherness” when consuming information based overseas.
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Meaning, people do not believe that a phenomenon like human trafficking could ever happen to

them or someone they know. In the study done by Transnational Cinemas in 2018, they explored

the difference in phenomena between foreigner slavery and white slavery. The white slavery

images and ideas tend to raise a higher concern than people of foreign decent. Another study

done about the media coverage on human trafficking in the United States versus Thailand can

bring to light why that might be (Sobel, 2014). Misinformation about human trafficking is not

just an American issue. Countries all over the world misinform about the matter on very different

spectrums. Thailand faces the opposite issue as we do in the United States because their

misinformation is commonly spread through an anti-government agenda. The same researcher

did a previous study including India in their findings (Sobel, 2014). The results continue to prove

that this is a worldwide educational fluke. 

Many researchers and social work professionals believe that social media should be a

highly considered factor when studying mental health (Casiano, 2020). According to the study

done by Social Sciences and Humanities Open in 2020, social media raises questions about

ethics and professional development in users. The use of online platforms as both entertainment

and a news source draw in emotions and advancements that generations before us did not have to

face. Social media creates a sense of urgency about issues, even issues that may not be entirely

valid. However, there are positive emotions and advancements that come with the rise of social

media as well (Gong, 2015). Social media allows us to immediately and personally connect with

government officials and movement leaders to promote change. When abused or misused, social

media can become a misinformed battle ground for people with differing opinions. However,

when used appropriately, social media can become one of our greatest assets to further study new

communication patterns (Gong 2015). 

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Whether it be traditional or social, the media plays a big role in prioritizing human

trafficking as a societal issue. Agenda setting is pushing human trafficking to be viewed as a

more low-profile issue (Papadouka, 2016). Many studies have proven that human trafficking is

only growing globally yet being covered less in traditional media. In fact, social media has been

proven to draw more attention to the issue than traditional media (Rusnac, 2019). In order to

tackle this issue and watch trafficking numbers go down, we must start by combating

misinformation. 

Social Media

Social media is an interactive technology that allows people from across the world to

collaborate and communicate on a simple platform. According to Papadouka et al. (2016), social

media sites can be used for entertainment, building connections, professional use, marketing, a

news platform, and can even cause issues of agenda-setting. Because of the diversifying use of

and the range of users of social media, information can be found on different topics within

seconds of an event occurring. 

Twitter is a commonly used social media site and has been around since 2006. Users can

post photos, videos, and statuses to share personal details about their lives, family, business, and

anything they feel is necessary for the people they are connected with to see (Papadouka, 2016).

Twitter is also commonly used to update the mass users on current events (Schulte, 2009).

Depending on who you are connected with on Twitter can determine the types of posts you are

exposed to. Because social media is becoming increasingly popular, traditional news

organizations such as print, radio, and television are using platforms like Twitter to circulate

stories and attract an audience (Schulte, 2009). This is an extremely quick and efficient way to

get the public to know about a certain occurrence. 

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Twitter can have a different effect on the way people view certain topics as seeing it on a

traditional news source might. A lot of information comes from established journalistic sources,

however on occasions, information is found to be deceptive, false or politically biased, or is

obtained from sources with hidden agendas (Dahlgren, 2015). Some of the audience that social

media obtains, oftentimes do not check the information very carefully or critically, thus

potentially spreading misinformation (Chadwick, 2013). Social media, like Twitter, can get the

news out quicker, but the majority of accurate details will be found on legitimate news sources. 

Traditional Media

Traditional media outlets are news from the television, radio, and print. Since the

beginning of traditional media, it has had a major influence on the human population. It is

recognized that news consumption through social media decreases trust, while its consumption

through web pages increases it (Ceron, 2015). The media specifically targets what the news

outlets want people to be concerned about. Traditional media has a better reputation in regard to

the truth, whereas social media tends to have more flaws within the internet world. Social media

is more inclined to have a trend that will get fabricated (Dahlgren, 2015). 

Social media and traditional media can both spread the same message but be delivered

and received in different ways (Schulte, 2009). Traditional media is one-way communication,

while social media can receive a response to a message. Social media and traditional media both

serve their purpose in society.

 Research Question

  The purpose of this research study is to uncover what media source is more likely to

invoke fear on the public in regard to news on human trafficking.

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Method

Participants

Participants consisted of 304 randomly selected individuals from social media websites.

The participants had come across the option to participate in the study from various social media

platforms and chose to take part on their own.

Of the 304 surveys distributed, 112 had to be set aside due to not being completed, giving

the final sample size of 192. There were 70 males and 122 females participating. The year in

school distribution of the sample was: 6.8% Freshman, 17.2% Sophomore, 30.2% Junior, 17.7%

Senior, and 28.1% other/not in college.

Materials

         The reaction to the human trafficking information was measured through a five-point

semantic differential scale, specifically developed to measure the effect that the information had

on the participant. The reaction to which type of media is more likely to invoke fear in the public

was measured with questions regarding how everyone felt during each of the four versions of the

questionnaire.

Procedures

         Before the participants completed the survey, they read a statement outlining the

participants rights in the situation, explained the directions for completing the survey, and read

the scenario carefully to make sure they answered the questions properly. This research utilized
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the two-group posttest-only design with one independent variable (the media) and two levels

(traditional media and social media). The participants were randomly administered one of two

versions of the survey. Each survey contained four possible conditions based on the two group

designs. The design resulted in the following conditions: (a) Social media and strong reaction to

human trafficking, (b) Social media and weak reaction to human trafficking, (c) Traditional

media and strong reaction to human trafficking, (d) Traditional media and weak reaction to

human trafficking.

Measures

Which media type is more effective.

Ten questions were used to assess the participants' perceived views on which media type

is more effective in grabbing the attention of individuals and producing a reaction of fear in those

individuals. Participants were asked to indicate their perceptions of the news article for both the

traditional and social media outlets based on the scenario they had just viewed.

Reaction to human trafficking.

Participants were asked to indicate their perceptions of the human trafficking information

based on the scenario they had just read using a five-point semantic differential scale. The

bipolar adjectives used to assess perceived immediacy were as follows: Unafraid-afraid,

unfearful- fearful, worried- unworried, nervous- not nervous, scary- unscary, not terrified-

terrified, not on edge- on edge, anxious- not anxious, tense- not tense, alarmed- not alarmed. This

scale was devised by our group to measure the fearfulness produced from each outlet of the

media. The survey asked for participants to select what phrase best represents how they
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perceived the social media news post compared to the traditional news story and 37.97% of the

people who participated in the survey said they were unafraid. When asked how fearful the social

media post made the participants feel, 37.96% said they were left feeling unfearful. The survey

showed that the social media post worried 37.49% of the people and left 37.65% of the people

nervous. Of the people who took the survey 37.54% said they felt the social media news post

was scary. One of the questions stated to please select which phrase best represents how the

participants perceive the social media news post and it was between not on edge and on edge,

38.01% of the participants did not feel on edge after reading the post about human trafficking.

The participants were asked if they felt anxious or not after reading the post and 37.56% felt

anxious. The survey showed that 37.65% felt tense from reading the social media news post. 

When asked to select between feeling alarmed and not alarmed by the social media news post,

37.48% of the participants said they felt alarmed. The data confirmed that those who received the

same content, but from a news source, reacted similarly to those who received the information

form a Twitter post. 

Results

         The engagement was measured to see which media source is more likely to create a

reaction and invoke fear in individuals. This was tested for reliability. Results showed that the

scale that we used for this had a reliability score of 0.084, which is not an outstanding reliability

score. The data was collected and entered into the SPSS data system. Significance levels were set

to a 0.5.

First, there are two groups for our data set, participants who received a tweet containing

the news article’s contents, and participants who received the same article from a news outlet.
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These groups were separated to see if there was a statistically significant difference between how

social media and traditional media invoke fear in an individual.

An independent sample t-test was used to see if there is a difference between social

media and traditional media. The two tailed significance tests showed that there was not a

statistically significant difference between the two groups.

Discussion

The study our group conducted did not test for any significant differences between the

two information outlets: one as the tweet from a random account and one as the news article

from a news source. The purpose of this research is to uncover what media source is more likely

to invoke fear on the public regarding news on human trafficking. Our independent t-test sample

showed that there is no difference between the two since the two tailed significance tests was

below 0.05. The data that we gathered supported this outcome. Showing us that there is no

difference in where the information comes from, how it is received stays the same.

Limitations

         The main limitation of this study was that it used a convenience sample and with the

outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, the landscape of research and the project shifted entirely. Using

a convenience sample does not give you participants who are the best representations of the

population. This could have been a threat to external validity, as participants could not have been

entirely honest with their responses. The sample could have poorly represented the target

audience. With distributing this survey to mostly college students, we lacked the average aged

American response with a vast majority of our responses being in the 18-22-year-old range. Only
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28% of our subjects were not in college. Our sample size also included 112 people that did not

finish the survey. This brought our sample size from 304 to 192. 192 individuals are not enough

to generalize how a population might react to something. What the researchers could have done

differently is expanding who they distributed the surveys to. The researchers should have

distributed the survey to more than just college aged individuals.

         Furthermore, since we used a convenience sample that could have had an impact on the

results since most of the people who were given the survey are close to the researchers. The

participants could have known what the researchers were trying to find and as a result, alter their

answers to seem appealing. These limitations affect the ability to generalize the findings to a

large audience of more than just college students.

         Also, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, the setting for this research project and

the method in which the researchers distribute the surveys drastically changed. The researchers

lost in-class instruction for the research project that as a result, made it more challenging to come

up with a solid research questionnaire. Moving from an in-class setting to a remote, online

setting was hard on the researchers. Though no one’s fault, the COVID-19 outbreak has led to

some difficult and unique intervention and survey difficulties.

         Another limitation of this research survey was the fact that the survey was brief. Only ten

questions were used to determine if the article or tweet produced a fearful reaction in an

individual. More questions could have been added to strengthen the correlation between the

variables. Participants could possibly have been confused on the meanings of questions and not

properly answer them.

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         There are some threats to both external and internal validity. The first threat to internal

validity is history, meaning that question answers could have been impacted by observations

with outside events. This study avoided threats via history by having the participant answer

questions directly after viewing the tweet or the article. Individuals finished this study rather

quickly and as a result, the threat to internal validity, content maturation, does not apply here.

Selection bias is an internal threat to validity that was likely in this study, due to people having

strong opinions of human trafficking. This is something that is hard to combat when it comes to

the topic at hand. It is hard to remove people's bias if they have or they know someone who has

experienced something like human trafficking before. During this study, the final internal threat

of validity, mortality, does not apply as no participants dropped out or died during the taking of

the survey.

         A possible external threat to validity could have been the participant’s political

preference. In this study, the researchers used an article from the news site, FOX. This news site

reports on the more conservative side and depending on your political preference, you might

choose to engage more negatively or positively with this article. This could have been

problematic as participants might not have taken the article as seriously if their political views

did not align with the political views of the article.

Implications

         This study has contributed to all prior research on traditional and social media and the

reaction that human trafficking elicits from individuals. As stated before, there is no difference in

whether the information comes from traditional media or social media. This means that the

content of human trafficking is powerful enough to elicit fear no matter what media it comes
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from. The results of this study show that the content of the message is more important than the

delivery system of that message. As a result, it shows that people are more worried about the

issue at hand. People are not concerned with how a message related to human trafficking is

relayed more so than what that message about human trafficking is and what it could mean for

other people.

Due to the prevalence of both social media and traditional media in our lives, it is

noteworthy to look at how people may perceive these differently. Social media is becoming more

a part of our lives every day, while traditional media is starting to slowly become less and less

prevalent in our society. Social media did not exist 20 years ago and now it is taking over how

we receive information in the modern world. Traditional media, such as television, newspapers,

and radio are not nearly as important as it used to be. With social media slowly taking center

stage, it is nice to see that the message will still be able to get across no matter what platform it is

distributed on.

To conclude, our study showed us that there is no significant difference between

traditional and social media when it comes to the topic of human trafficking. From the data, it

showed that both sets of people who received the news article, or the tweet had virtually the

same averages per question. 

Future Research 

Social media is continuing to grow, and it will inevitably become a vital outlet for many

major news sources. Because of this, further research would be extremely beneficial. Although in

our study, we did not find there to be a significant difference between traditional and social
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media when it comes to the topic of human trafficking and fear, there are other questions that

remain unanswered. This study shows that the source of the information does not cause a

difference in emotional effect about human trafficking. By taking this study further and seeing

whether or not users believe social media or traditional media is a more reliable source, could be

very beneficial. There are many traditional media outlets, such as The New York Times, The

Wall Street Journal, and The Chicago Tribune, that have taken their content to social media, in

addition to their traditional media. Social media will only continue to grow, and it would not be

surprising if print newspapers were wiped out completely due to the easy access to online news. 

Further research could also lead to understanding an audience’s perspective on receiving

news, specifically about human trafficking on social media. Unlike a newspaper, radio or

television newscast, one can interact with the news story and give their feedback. Interaction like

this could potentially reach a larger audience and cause either a positive or negative response.

Media outlets, like newspapers and news stations, are gatekeepers of the news and based on the

response they get from previous stories could determine what sort of content they release in the

future. This is also very important for the public to know. If the public has more control on what

news is being reported, one may actively engage more to receive the content they want. This may

also lead to less bias gatekeeping on the news source’s end. 

Another potential research topic to take this study further would be to study what type of

people engage with media regarding information on human trafficking. A study like this could

help identify demographics on those who are learning more for caution and protection purposes,

for activism, and for intrigue. Some other factors that may be taken into consideration would be

if different demographics prefer a different social media site to receive updates about human
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trafficking, and who prefers traditional media. This could be a beneficial study to determine how

to get important information out about human trafficking and who the intended audience is. 

Continuing with other potential ways to proceed forward with this research study would

be to have a survivor of human trafficking share their story via social media. This would bring

more emotion to the post and potentially create more conversation. This would be more likely to

create a range of emotions from the audience. Having a victim post about their experience may

bring more of a genuine and authentic side to things, rather than viewers of the different news

sources reading statistics. This could be measured by seeing how the audience reacts to a

survivor’s story, and potentially further the importance on human trafficking and how the media

reports on it.

This study showed that there is almost no difference between traditional and social media

in regard to an audience’s reaction on a news article pertaining to human trafficking. The data

from this study showed that both groups of people who received different forms of media had a

similar reaction to human trafficking, the outlet did not matter. Even though this study did not

have an answer that could clarify and better communication in regard to human trafficking, does

not mean that further research cannot. Continuing research on different topics related to this

study will only better the usage of social media. Further studies can show how news outlets can

best utilize social media to gain an audience and have proper interactions to better their

organization’s mission. Social media will only continue to grow, and it is vital that major media

outlets keep up and continue to adapt.

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