Cognitive “Warning Signs” in Human Trafficking Media Texts

WHTV (Warn Human Trafficking Victim) aims at elaborating linguistic strategies to prevent human trafficking (HT). Fueled by social disturbances, HT becomes a greater threat across the globe. Awareness should be raised at various levels, with much attention given at the pre-employment stage which can be achieved in academic setting. This study explores cognitive pre-requisites of warning potential victims about HT. The methodology relies on the premises of media linguistics that realities mediated through pre-constructed messages (Blommaert and Verschueren 1998) make impact on people’s lives; Image-Schema Theory (Lakoff and Johnson 2003, Johnson 2013) for identifying image-schemas (IS) actuated during reading; and empirical methods (Peer 1986) for verifying a dependence of readers’ response on the use of IS