Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak discuss new guidelines released by the U.S. Department of State for effective public awareness and outreach efforts for human trafficking. In order to have ethical practices to empower victims, we must be vigilant in how we frame our media messages. Sandie emphasizes three central ideas from the guidelines that are necessary for ethical public awareness and outreach.

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Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the ending human trafficking podcast. This is episode number 226 – Media Ethics: Where Do You Draw the Line?

Production Credits [00:00:09] Produced by Innovate Learning, Maximizing Human Potential.

Dave [00:00:29] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie [00:00:35] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave [00:00:37] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Sandie, today a conversation about media ethics and where we draw the line. And this is a conversation we’ve had many times in different contexts, of course, of the show. But there’s some new materials available that we wanted to dive in on.

Sandie [00:01:03] Yes, and I’m excited to bring to your attention a new guideline that has been released by our Department of State Office on Trafficking in Persons. First, though, I’d like to respond to some text messages, emails, and social media increase about how is the Global Center for Women and Justice doing during COVID-19? And to respond to that, I just want everyone to know we are working remotely. And Dave and I are recording this remotely. He’s in his stay at home secure place and I’m in mine. And the biggest thing that people can do is to continue to support the work. Our work continues even in COVID-19. We continue to work remotely. We’re still working with task forces and survivors who are pursuing their education now entirely online. So, if you wanted to do something, please give. And you can go to www.gcwj.org and hit the donate button. That’s how you can help us during COVID-19.

Dave [00:02:26] We have many people in our community that do support not only this show, but perhaps more importantly, support the work of the center and all the work you’ve done Sandie over the years through the Global Center for Women and Justice. So, thank you if you have been one of those supporters. And to reinforce what Sandie said, we are very blessed, we have a wonderful team, we have wonderful volunteers already. We’re not seeking more help in that way. You can certainly continue to give, though, or perhaps give for the first time if you have not before. That’ll continue to support our work and support Sandie’s work and the work of the show. So, here we are, Sandie, and we’re continually moving forward as we always are, regardless of what’s happening in the world, because this is such an important issue. And today, even more on how we can use, speaking of the podcast, how we can use media well in order to get the message out there.

Sandie [00:03:18] And we have such a great platform to share these guidelines. And it’s very interesting, guidelines are vetted documents when they’re produced by our government. And so, this wasn’t something that somebody put together overnight, it’s a five-page document. And I really want to emphasize it’s only five pages, which is pretty spectacular for a government guidelines document. Don’t you agree?

Dave [00:03:47] I do agree.

Sandie [00:03:48] And what is particularly unique about this is it is a survivor informed document. So, federal agencies worked on it together. The president’s interagency task force, along with the Survivor Advisory Council. So, it is not just somebody’s rules. These have been vetted and we have heard from survivors about how they want their story told.

Dave [00:04:20] One of the challenges I know Sandie when thinking about telling stories is the way to do that and also what not to do that and how to really think about the implications of telling a survivor story. And I know you have seen many examples of this done poorly or done without thought. And you’ve also seen some good examples of this. At a big picture level, what are some of the things that are concerning to you when you do see them out there in the world as first people sharing stories?

Sandie [00:04:52] Well, I share a lot of the angst that comes through in this document from the survivors. It’s their story to tell. So, make sure you have permission to tell their story. And sometimes in fundraising, there’s a chance that we might focus so much on a single story that we use it. And I’m emphasizing the word “use it” to raise the emotional response to the giving opportunity when we actually need to be thinking about not just our outputs, but what are our outcomes? How are we using our platform, our nonprofit, the funds that people give for the big picture? And that is what part of this document is about. So, I’m excited to have this conversation with you.

Dave [00:05:53] As you’ve reviewed this document and thought about the work that we do and how we utilize media. What comes up for you as central that you’d love to see organizations really lean in on and leaders and organizations who are helping to end human trafficking to be thinking about?

Sandie [00:06:13] Well, I think there are two segments. One is how we talk about statistics. And the other is how we talk about messaging. And when we look at statistics, I know people are very aware of how often I talk about statistics and how I avoid using conflated statistics. And so, when I teach the antihuman tr...