Framing victims: Representations of modern slavery and human trafficking in UK newspapers

Abstract

This study critically examines how UK print media represents victims of modern slavery and human trafficking (MSHT), considering the media’s role in both reflecting and shaping public perceptions and policy responses. Drawing on a content analysis of 619 newspaper articles published between 2020 and 2024 in the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, this research explores recurring themes in victim representation. Using NVivo for qualitative and quantitative coding, we analyse how characteristics such as gender, age, motivations and legal status affect depictions of ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ victims. We find that certain groups, such as women and children, are often portrayed as innocent and worthy of protection, while others, such as men and migrants, are framed as complicit or less deserving of sympathy, and that this leads to a hierarchy of victimhood. Frame analysis further reveals a dominant focus on MSHT at an individual level, with limited attention to systemic factors, reinforcing selective empathy in public and policy discourse. We argue that victimhood is a contested category, in part shaped by media narratives, and that such portrayals have real-world consequences for identification, support and policy design.