Conclusion

Throughout the 2010 STOP Human Trafficking campaign, discussions on gender, class, and age occur during the creation of meaning through the visuals of images and videos. One of the central questions within discourse analysis is how power is constructed and what that has to do with knowledge. Rose writes, "the most powerful discourses, in terms of the productiveness of their social effects, depend on assumptions and claims that their knowledge is true" (Rose 144). The web campaign makes assumptions about gender, class, age, and even race, but do so in a way that confronts the real issues of each category within the modern day slave trade.

I would conclude that each element of the website addressed contributes to the overall message of the campaign that human trafficking is a real, horrendous issue that affects women in ways that cannot be dismissed by attributing it to sexism, however we do not actually need to change the way that women and age groups are portrayed in media or address root economic problems that allow women within the privileged class to speak out, while 27 million others are enslaved.

As a viral internet campaign, the STOP website may seem abstract, but because of the changing nature of how virtual reality is viewed, as well as the conscious efforts by the campaign to give tangible ways to help end human trafficking, this campaign cannot be dismissed as solely a website. As exemplified by the specialized roles depicted on the website, the Internet browser, or cybernaut, "won't just step into the picture; he/she/it will become the picture itself" (Batchen 237). By stepping into the role, a person will "inhabit a world beyond the surface of the screen, living behind or perhaps even within that boundary which has traditionally been thought to separate reality from its representation" (Batchen 237).

Within the medium of the Internet, viewers are enabled to explore and create meaning in new ways, but the power of visuals to influence and inform holds true. In the case of the web campaign I have analyzed, it is clear that reflexivity must be practiced. As Moshoula Desyallas says in her critique of the global trafficking discourse and U.S. policy, "it is crucial that western policy makers, western feminists, and others in positions of privilege decenter their western power" (71). By doing so, we can hope to better understand our constructions of class, race, gender, and age in a way that leads to a change in how we approach solving problems like modern day human trafficking.

Thank you for exploring my website!

This website was made by Shelley Dormont in Bob Bednar's spring 2010 Visual Communications course. Feel free to contact me or visit the STOP website to see what you can do to help end human trafficking today!

Psychoanlysis of Animated Video

Psychoanlysis of Celebrity Video

Semiotic Analysis of Homepage

Intro