Blog #4

http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2016/04/19/vietnam-girls-saved-at-border-cfp-field-pkg.cnn

Police saved Vietnamese girls being transported over the border of China and Vietnam to be sold into sex slavery, and this video report by CNN tells their story.

The use of video and sources were incredibly important to this story for two reasons. First, we hear about sex trafficking in Asia frequently; we are aware of its existence and know it’s a bad thing, but as Americans I think it is hard to conceptualize something of this nature. As a general population we have no idea what’s going on in Asia and what normal life is like in Vietnam. Taking video of the villages and homes these girls come from is essential to understanding — or attempting to understand — that sex slavery in Asia happens to people’s daughters. Video humanizes the issue and helps put faces to this overarching idea of “sex trafficking in Asia” which we can’t really begin to actually understand as an idea as a Westernized population.

Along with the importance of video, the sources were incredibly important. The reporter talked to five of the victims of the crime, concealing their identities because of age. She also talked to the mother of one of the victims, a member of the prevention department, and an outreach worker.

The mother, who spoke to the reporter outside her home, worked very well as a source because, as mentioned before, sex slavery in Asia happens to people’s daughters. No mother wants her daughter to be sold into human trafficking, and by putting us into the mind of the mother of a victim and listening to her tell her story, we as viewers begin to reach some understanding.

The girls themselves were very important sources as well. One shot featured the girls, the reporter, and the outreach worker sitting in a room together. The girls all spoke in Vietnamese and the outreach worker translated for them. Seeing the girls is important because they further humanize the situation and verify the statements of the outreach worker. We understand as viewers that she’s saying things that directly happened to the girls because we can see them talking to her.

The prevention worker gives context to the situation and helps viewers understand a broader view of sex trafficking prevention. I think he was chosen as a source to address how the girls are being rescued and the role of the police in the process. He also discussed the role of China in the story from a regulatory perspective, which wasn’t something the victims could have provided.

The reporter talked to a victim at the end of the story who showed her around her home with her younger siblings, which reinforced the idea of humanity the story is trying to appeal to. Dressed like a Westerner and speaking English, the girl could be anyone’s daughter. She was extremely important to give the story a face.

I believe all the sources were reliable, but I wanted to hear more from the prevention worker about the role China is playing in this human trafficking. We get the story in Vietnam, but I was left wanting to know more about the rescue process in China or on the border.