Date of Award

12-11-2023

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Sociology

First Advisor

Desmond Goss

Second Advisor

Deirdre Oakley

Third Advisor

Mathew Gayman

Abstract

This work explores the concern towards a perceived sex trafficking problem in metro Atlanta and this perception’s relationship with local media coverage of commercial sex labor (CSL). Using Erotic Capital and Feminist Criminalization theories, I critically analyzed the discursive landscape of CSL in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution (AJC). Then, considering the media’s power in shaping public opinion and relying on the strengths of qualitative methodologies (Patton 2002), I evaluated this landscape for moral panic evidence. I found that authors: 1) primarily used disparaging descriptions of voluntary CSL; 2) conflated voluntary CSL with sex trafficking; and 3) distorted the reality of Full-Service Sex Work (FSSW). Taken together, the findings reveal the negative media framing of CSL, which contributes to it’s contemporary resurgence as a popular moral enterprise. Moreover, this centuries-old moral panic as a case study informs us of the idiosyncrasies that color moral enterprise and lead to panic.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.57709/36398050

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