‘One of the greatest injustices of our time’: The impact of social representations of modern slavery in the UK—A mixed methods approach

This study aimed to examine how social representations of modern slavery and immigration become entangled in newspaper media. 2672 UK newspaper articles were collated from 2013 to 2022 and analysed using Content Analysis (Descendant Hierarchical Classification) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Two themes and corresponding extracts were identified from the content analysis output and analysed using CDA allowing for the exploration of the role of the hegemonic social representations to understanding how discourses of modern slavery are reproduced through the othering in relation to ethnicity and migration. The two themes that emerged were ‘Leading the way in tackling slavery’ and ‘Making claims.’ The themes combined showed how the media and political discourse positioned the UK government as leading the way in tackling modern slavery. Simultaneously, discourses criminalized migrants and constructed them as the source of social harm, and the obstacles to resolving the social injustices were those opposing anti-immigration legislation. These two contradictory positions have implications in how modern slavery is understood by the public. More worryingly, it could lead to silence from victims due to the threat of being criminalized.