Essay Example on Slavery which did not end with abolition in the 19th century

Slavery which did not end with abolition in the 19th century continues today and harms many people in every country around the world Women coerced into prostitution People forced to work in agriculture factories and domestic work Entire families are pushed to work for nothing to pay off generational debts Girls are driven to marry older men Slavery can be passed on through generations and children are also exploited in slavery This essay is going to highlight the extent of child labor all over the world and the strategies which can be employed to reduce Moreover there will be several suggestions on what the media can do to further expose situations of child labor with the aim of making aware individuals to the dangers of the practice on national economic development The proposals also help the media to champion effective strategies aimed at combating child slavery These days millions of the world s poor are trapped in slavery since nobody is there to protect them In many areas the laws against slavery simply are not enforced by the police and courts therefore many slave owners and traffickers think they can prey on the poor without fear of any consequences Child labor has existed to varying extents through most of the history Many children in sweatshops are constrained to produce merchandise sold globally In a contemporary world today child slavery is considered as the most shocking forms of slavery

There are about 218 million children around the world between 5 and 17 years are in employment In addition 152 million are victims of child labor among them 73 million work in hazardous child labor Almost half of 152 million victims of child labor are aged from 5 to 11 What is more 28 are from 12 to 14 years old and 24 are from 15 to 17 Child labor is concentrated primarily on agriculture including fishing forestry livestock herding aquaculture and commercial farming about 17 in other services and 12 in the industrial sector which includes mining Despite the government efforts the figures have only decreased slightly over the years Moreover the main reasons for child labor have not been effectively addressed According to several ongoing projects poverty food and education are the major causes of child labor For instance because living standards appear to be particularly low among farmers the elderly and female headed households poverty is considered as the most important driver of child labor Besides food insecurity pushes a lot of families to send their children to work to increase the household income Lastly the high cost of education and the low quality of education in some countries lead to child slavery 

The media has provided news coverage on child labor in many different ways whenever issues of child labor have arisen This essay focus on two main communication theories used to combat child labor which is Agenda Setting Function theory and Cultivation theory According to the Agenda Setting theory news reports concentrate on particular aspects of issues of child labor or report about them in different ways For example the International Labor Organization ILO which is a United Nations agency dealing with labor problems seems to frame child labor issues in certain means with the headlines like ILO proposes policies to end to end child labor by 2025 13 November 2017 Global Conference on the Sustained Eradication of Child Labor ILO head warns that there are still 152 million victims of child labor 14 November 2017 etc Since the 1970s Nike has been accused of using children to produce footwear and clothing items Nike and child labor issues are reported with tons of newspapers and videos on social media These stories could be frame to emphasize on child labor A number of studies have been done that make the agenda setting function theory seem really plausible The Cultivation theory states that people who watch large amounts of television will be more susceptible to the media compared to those who watch small amounts of television 

The theory also argues that media generally presents an image of the world which does not reflect the reality Television images are an exaggeration of what actually exists As a result after watching a lot of child labor documentaries on television people start to blur the lines between the real world and the one on television In a nutshell heavy viewing of television and the associated violence leads the viewer to believe the world is much more dangerous place than actually is with kidnappers can kidnap the children and force the children to work for them Because television occupies a central role in our culture it is one of the most influential forms of media Unfortunately people watching a lot on television become seriously afraid of the negative things can happen in reality Such diverse coverage of child labor may look sufficient Child labor is a phenomenon which is rife among the poorest parts of the society 

Newspaper stories are read mainly by the affluent people But people who can afford to buy and read newspapers would not normally engage their children in child labor In spite of their relative affluence landowners are known to benefit from child labor Their interests lie in maximizing profits through labor intensification on their estates It is therefore reasonable to assume that some influential people such as politicians and other high ranking members of society who are estate owners are reluctant to fight child labor and would not give maximum support to initiatives to eliminate it Based on the above observations there is the need for the media to join hands so as to stop child labor Issues such as the health dangers of children working in tobacco estates have not been given sufficient exposure therefore the media can dig deeper to show the public circumstances that depict the health dangers of chemicals found in tobacco Furthermore the International Labor Organization can assist in research to enhance the role of the media in child labor