Approach 1—MitchF

Airport Trafficking Prevention Media

Summary: This is a project designed to use New Media and a many-to-many approach to help put an end to human trafficking in the Atlanta Airport.

Visuals: 

Sign Mock-ups

Atlanta Airport Network Page Mock-up

Background:

Atlanta is one of the largest human trafficking hubs in the world, and although there are already numerous efforts to conquer this tragedy, new media could play a much larger role than it currently is. This project would utilize new media through a many-to-many network, where anyone could report suspicious activity using their smart phone.

This project would benefit those who have been victimized by this issue and are truly helpless. This is important for the virtuosity of humanity and lending a hand to those who can’t help themselves.

Audience: The Audience would be anyone who travels through the Atlanta Airport with a smart phone.

Explanation:

By placing a series of strategically placed signs throughout the Atlanta airport, educating people on the statistics of human trafficking in Atlanta, and then creating a system on the local network to report suspicious activity, this issue could be subsided tremendously.

Using the ATL Airport public network, anyone with a smart phone would be presented with an option to report suspicious activity, along with a few other options (Location could be recorded by smart phone, but specific location description, details, person description, etc. could all be presented as options to submit) on the homepage of that network. It would be as easy as opening an Internet browser and using the page that automatically pulls up. Obviously, this wouldn’t replace telling a local authority what you saw. But it would provide another avenue to report people or issues, while being more discrete. And, local authorities are not present everywhere in an airport. Also, algorithms where multiple reports were made would very quickly report where a serious threat was.

It’s obviously a bit grim and uninviting to put up a bunch of signs about trafficking, but the benefits would outweigh the consequences. Also, signs could be slowly taken away or cut down on once people understood the system.

A social media campaign could be launched as well. One approach could be a new campaign that used the hash tag #not4sale. This could be utilized by displaying a short video and displaying the hash tag at sporting events and concerts in Atlanta. Places such as Phillips Arena, The Mercedes Benz Stadium at Falcons games, Atlanta United games, Braves games, etc. would be great venues to educate those who live in the Atlanta Area of the issue, with the ultimate goal of beginning a trend on twitter.

Another approach for a social media campaign would be to partner with the END IT Movement.

https://enditmovement.com/

This is a current organization that fights for freedom worldwide. I thing partnering with this company specifically, Atlanta and the Atlanta Airport could have great results with them already being such an established organization.

Either one of these approaches could have a drastic impact. And, regardless of whether or not a new campaign was implemented or we partnered with the END IT Movement, the same strategies could be used at sporting events and concerts in the Atlanta Area.

Credits:

I worked on this project by myself. However, I had some great input from classmates. Classmate, Pete Blangiardi, suggested implementing the suspicious activity reporting aspect on airport “check in” pages. So many people now check in for flights using their mobile devices, even using them for tickets. By implementing the system into this aspect of flying, it would be another avenue for people to be aware of the feature, as well as put the thought in the back of their mind while in the airport, being on the lookout.

It’s not a matter of changing peoples mind with this issue, but educating them on how they can contribute to a solution on how to end this. I am actually from Georgia and just outside the Atlanta area, which is why this issue resonates with me a little more.

Simple budget for estimated cost:

The needs would break down as follows:

Sign development (3-10 hours) – $500

Sign creation – (200 signs at $40-$400 a piece scattered throughout the Atlanta Airport) $20,000

Development for network homepage that integrates human trafficking reporting system (10-15 hours) – $5,000-$10,000

This could be completed in a couple months at most. It wouldn’t require that much space, besides the sign manufacturing, which would be done by a third party.