The journalists and readers of the newspaper The Guardian prefer different topics in human trafficking related news, write Maria Eirini Papadouka, Nicholas Evangelopoulos and Gabe Ignatow, all of University of North Texas. The authors analyzed the specific themes of The Guardian‘s news on human trafficking and the subjects of readers’ comments posted in conjunction to said stories.

The authors identified a total of 11 topics, out of which four were of equal interest to both journalists and readers. For example, gender relations was one such topic. Four other topics, like police reaction to human trafficking, interested journalists but not so much the audience. Finally, three topics were widely discussed by the audience but of less interest to journalists.

The article Agenda setting and active audiences in online coverage of human trafficking was published by the journal Information, Communication & Society. It is available online (abstract free).

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