Cognitive “warning signs” in human trafficking media texts

Abstract

This paper focuses on image schema manifestations in media texts on human trafficking, which may perform the role of “warning” signals in anti-trafficking media campaigns. For this, a conceptual analysis was done to establish profiled image schemas, and a survey was conducted to measure the readerʼs response to two types of texts on human trafficking (HT), different in genre and schemata organ-isation. The texts were selected as experimental material representing typical human trafficking media discourse. The participants were divided into control (G1) and experimental (G2) groups according to the type of text they were exposed to. G1 read an expository text (T1) and G2 read a media narrative (T2). The respondents of G2 showed a significant tendency for a higher degree of involvement in the problem of human trafficking when reading T2 as contrasted to the responses of G1 to T1. G2 identified their reaction as a feeling being in danger. Looking back to T2, it was clear that respondents reacted to verbal manifesta-tions of prevailing CONTAINMENT and SCALE/ PROCESS/UP schemata clusters. G1 gave the weaker emo-tional response toT1 with verbal manifestations of UP, BLOCKAGE, and COUNTERFORCE schemata. It can be assumed that CONTAINMENT is the image schema organising spatial representation of human traffick-ing from the victimʼs perspective, conveying the feeling of being contained, being in a difficult situation, being in an enclosed space, supported with other schemata manifestations through the lens of the concept of big-ness, large scale, growing process, etc. The results may be used in anti-trafficking content as a new method-ology for raising awareness in a target audience vulnerable to HT.