ABSTRACT

Stories play an enormous role in shaping understandings of human trafficking, disseminated through entertainment media, news reports, government documents and awareness campaigns. The storytellers exercise a great deal of narrative agency, choosing the victims to showcase, the villains to blame and the heroes to celebrate. This chapter investigates the influence of storytellers on the narrative, highlighting the control non-government organisations exert over the dissemination of stories, and demonstrating two significant trends in the telling of trafficking stories. The rhetorical framing of labour exploitation as ‘modern slavery’ historicises the narrative, seeking resonance with the audience’s understanding of slavery of the past. In addition, the frequent portrayal of trafficking stories in scripted television shows and movies, along with the anti-trafficking advocacy of movie stars, has fuelled a convergence between entertainment and education in storytelling. In this chapter, I consider the blurred lines between truth and fiction, arguing that stories that ‘ring true’, whether or not they actually are true, dominate the trafficking narrative.