Conference Report (Short Version)

School Bullying and Violence: The Role of Media

International Online Conference, May 15 - June 9, 2006

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Detailed version of this report (pdf, in English)
Short version of this report in French / in German / in Spanish / in Romanian
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Contents

In this short report of the online conference ‘School Bullying and Violence: the Role of Media’, you find a short description of the course of the online conference and its background. Then, the main results are briefly presented and shortly discussed in the final conclusion. More detailed information can be found in the full report.

About the online Conference

The online conference ‘School Bullying and Violence: the Role of Media’ was the fourth of five online conferences of the VISIONARIES-NET project. For an overview of the other conferences and more information about the VISONARIES-NET see www.bullying-in-school.info

The target groups of the online conference were journalists, media policy makers, researchers, invited guests, NGO or educational institutions representatives, communication executives etc. You can see the list with all the participants and moderators with information on their background at this link participants

The general objective of all five online conferences is to bring together experts on SBV via Internet and thus network people form all over the world, who wouldn’t have a chance to get together in real life.
The conference “School Bullying and Violence: the Role of Media’ aimed at bringing together participants from several European countries who are interested in the way School Bullying and Violence (SBV) is reported by the media. There were discussed issues like What is the role of media in School Bullying and Violence, How can media participate at the prevention of SBV, Can media be a vector of safety feeling about SBV, How do media reports influence the development of prevention of SBV
That way, the participants were given the chance to: meet other people interested on this issue; find out more about approaches and ideas from other parts of the world; learn and profit from others who deal with the same problems and challenges; network with experts from other countries and cultures.

Concept and Methodology of the Conference

The conference consisted of an asynchronous forum to which only the invited participants had access. The forum was open 24 hours a day for four weeks. That way, it was made possible for the participants from all over the world to take part in the discussion whenever they found the time.
As the participants are considered the real experts, they were involved in the process of selecting the topics. The moderators offered them a short questionnaire with questions related to the four topics of the week. Those answers were then analysed and served as starting points for the conference’s discussions in different threads. There, the participants reflected once again about the answers they and their colleagues had given to the initial questions and used those answers as a base for further discussions.
This multilevel process is very similar to the so-called Delphi approach, which is used to explore new fields of research with help of a group of experts.
 
There was one major topic for every week, each consisting of 2-3 subtopics that were discussed in several threads. The topics were not – as intentionally planned – closed exactly at the end of the week, but left open longer in order not to interrupt interesting discussions.

The outcomes of the discussions were summarized at regular intervals and presented to the participants in the conference forum. They were informed about the opening and closing process via a periodically newsletter. In an off-topic section, the experts could discuss other important issues which were related to the topic of ‘School Bullying and Violence: the Role of Media’ but didn’t fit in any of the main threads.

The conference’s main outcomes in brief

Topic 1: Reports of SBV in media

Information sources on SBV

Questionnaire:

- For journalists: How do journalists gather information when they decide to   write about SBV? Where do you look for information about SBV?

- For people working with media: What have you been asked by journalists when you were supposed to inform them on a specific issue? What do you think it would be helpful to be published and it is not and why?

• among the information sources on SBV, participants identified: schools, statistics of reported bullying, officials, victims of bullying, parents, teachers, students and police. The information usually requested by journalists regards: details about the victim (the name, personal information as home address, pictures etc), facts, who is responsible, who will be punished, victims of SVB.
• regarding victims exposure by media the following ideas have been presented: victims should present their point of view, their side of the story; victims who participate at interviews or talk shows should be strong enough to deal with the media, to cope with the pressure and the exposure, victims who agree to be exposed by media should be persons able to pass the message along, victims should be aware of their rights and risks when they are exposed by media

Type of reports on SBV

Questionnaire:

1. How is SBV reflected by media in your country?
2. Which is the best dosage between too many news and the absence of news on the subject
3. How do you think that SBV reports in media should look like and why?

• there are always news about school violence acts and heavy incidents, whereas in-depth analysis are sporadic
• media have to offer information to the public. The information has to be checked and neutral, offering a broad perspective
• media’s role is to inform and not to give solutions or make accusation
• in many countries, the SBV issues are reflected as isolated cases, they are not regular subjects for the media
• too many reports on SBV are as bad as the absence of news on SBV due to the fact that the general public might lose interest on the subject. But it is also important the fact that the high number of news on the subject means that the phenomenon of SBV is widespread which could be a signal of alarm
• there were presented some prevention solutions, like for example training the teachers on how to deal with SBV problems

Definitions on SBV

• there are four factors that contribute to the development of a bullying behavior: 1) a negative attitude from the parents or the person who takes care of the child or adolescent; 2) a tolerant or permissive attitude facing the child’s or adolescent’s aggressive behavior; 3) parents who employ authority and violence to control the child or the adolescent; and 4) the child’s or the adolescent’s natural propensity to be arrogant. According to the same author, most bullies are boys, but girls can also be bullies. The girls who are bullies use, sometimes, indirect approaches like gossip, manipulation of friends, lies, and the exclusion of someone from a group (SMITH; SHARP, 1994)
• all verbal and physical behavior with the intention to hurt, to intimidate, to insult or to offend the integrity and dignity of a person; behavior like giving nicknames, ridiculing, spreading false rumors, teasing, harassing, taking things forcefully and against the will of the person and physical violence
• all forms of abuse (emotional, sexual, physical or others) among the school stakeholders ( student to student, adult to student, student to adult, and so on)
• bullying is when one person (or more) practices psychic or physical power towards another person (or more) in powerlessness
• cyber bullying is when a person (or more) practices psychic power towards another person (or more) in powerlessness

Topic 2: How to handle media

Rights and risks of victims exposed by media

Questionnaire:

1. which are the rights and which are the risks of victims' media exposure?
2. when do you think that a victim should be/may be exposed and when do you think that the victim shouldn't/may not?
3. who should advise the victims on this issue?

• young people's identity should be protected by media
• journalists should not publish the names of the victims of any act of violence. The victim should have the right to decide if his/her story should be made public or not
• there should exist some advisory services for victims, in order to empower them if they want to tell their story, as well as to advise them on both the rights and risks brought by media exposure
• bullies don't appear in the media coverage
• media and parents have a very important role in educating both the victim and the public 
• parents are not always on the children's side
• teachers should intervene and protect the children

Media relation skills

Questionnaire:

1. which are the basic media relations skills that those who deal with SBV issues should have? We refer here at victims, teachers, parents, peers, NGO representatives etc.
2. how may these media relations skills be transmitted?
3. how can one improve his/her basic media relations skills?

• media should present fact based information. Statistics, facts, research, studies provide valuable and usually trustworthy information not only for journalists but also for the public
• the victims' testimonies and statements are very important. It was also underlined that articles or news presenting both pros and cons views on an event are more credible than those presenting only pros. 
• the reaction depends on the characteristics of the target groups (those who are listening to the story), therefore the message sent through media should be adapted so that it is understood by the target group
• victims must acknowledge that there are others in similar situations and that there are solutions for solving the problem

Topic 3: Mass media targets and effects

Effects and media programs

The discussion was started due to the fact that media content include many other things apart from news. In the last years in several countries, there were several research reports indicating an increasing number of scenes depicting violence in TV programs. The same reports state that the effect of such TV programs is to encourage cases of violence in everyday life.

So, the questionnaire included:

1. do you agree or disagree with that and why?
2. can the violence from media programs activate or generate violent behaviors?
3. what do you think that can be done and who should do what?

• parents have a crucial role in shaping media habits of their children and parents should choose what their children are allowed to see on TV
• in France in 2002, a report has been made about the "Evaluation of the sociological, psychological effects and esthetics of the inflation of violence to television". This was the first (and last) French study about it. The study recognizes "a net effect of the impact of the diffusion of violent spectacles on the behavior of young people". It also notes a delay of France compared to its European neighbors in the implementation of regulatory instruments at the same time effective and authorized by all the partners against the development of this violence
• some studies say that TV programs have a small influence, others state that TV programs influence the violent behavior a lot. Therefore, studies actually prove the state of being of a society at a given moment
• a research about the TV influence on violent behavior said that the violent behavior increased at 70% of the studied people after TV exposure and that the influence of TV was relevant with previously aggressive people

Audience and its competence

• it was discussed one theory in mass communication which states that the audience has a media competence and, consequently, it “uses” media to get specific gratifications. Broadly, the theory says that members of target groups are aware of their information needs, are active and use media to answer those needs, they evaluate how satisfied are and use different media to answer different needs that have different gratifications
• media can also create needs and profile a new audience
• one should first study and find out which media is the most popular with the group that one wants to address. This does not mean that other forms of media are ignored, but that the major emphasis is put on the first to reach maximum audience
• first it must be defined whom we want to address and then to study thoroughly the media's audience habits, so that to identify the most popular media
• prior to choosing the media we must define the message

Topic 4: Methods of working with media

Working with media in a positive way

• the most important thing to be done is to raise awareness, to make governments recognize the existence of SBV and to advocate for relevant legislation
• the media have a very important role in presenting the facts as they are. It’s then up to educators to transmit the messages they want to
• there are different ways of media reactions among countries. In countries like Moldova there is no interest in issues like SBV, probably due to the fact that home violence is such a common fact that other associated issues are still considered taboo.
• the British media are very keen to ignore the daily homophobia in schools
• in Norway for example, the media focus on SBV was enormous, and researchers believe that media focus contributed at the decrease in the number of victims. However, when media focus stopped, the SBV control was lost again

Inventory of methods

• as far as journalists’ approach is concerned, it was concluded that one should contact journalists always based on facts, stories, information, otherwise he/she risks to be misunderstood, no matter how "noble" the cause
• one major question was raised: “What happens if the media don’t respect the victim’s privacy”. The following answers were formulated:
  • In Norway if journalists break their promise about not revealing the identity of the victim one can complain to www.presse.no/np.asp
  • to diminish the effects one should rise awareness about the phenomenon
  • journalists should have a deontological code that should be respected in its relationship with the victims 

• below you will find an overview of anti-bullying methods used or advised by anti bullying organizations in The Netherlands:
  • teaching children to think positively about themselves and others – the method is based upon: trusting each other, helping each other.
  • teaching a child to become less vulnerable by both verbal and physical training
  • establishing behavior rules together with pupils

• regarding the media's role in prevention and/or reacting on SBV, the following example from Norway was presented. There is a new Norwegian anti-bully program: two well known TV stand up comedians offer pupils a speech “Humor and bullying”
• there are media literacy programs that could help children and teenagers to cope with different types of violence portrayed by media