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TITLE OF DOCUMENT:

Acting against school bullying and violence - The role of media, local authorities and the internet

NAME OF AUTHOR(S):

Roasario Ortega, Joaquin A. Mora-Merchan and Thomas Jager

NAME OF PUBLISHER:

Empirische Paedagogik e.V.

LANGUAGE OF DOCUMENT:

English

LANGUAGE OF THE REVIEW:

English

KEYWORDS:

Cyberbullying, internet bullying, local authority role, role of the media

DOCUMENT TYPOLOGY:

Report

TARGET GROUP OF PUBLICATION:

Researchers.

SIZE OF THE PUBLICATION:

Over 100 pages

DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS:

The report, published in 2007, is divided into four sections:

1) The new forms of bullying and violence
2) Coping with School Bullying and Violence(SBV) using the
internet
3) Local Authorities coping with School Bullying and Violence
4) School Bullying and Violence: the role of the media

Section 1 covers Cyberbullying, Happy Slapping, Dating Violence
Section 2 covers the world wide web e.g. ways of using the internet and what it offers to users interested in SVB
Section 3 explains why Local Authorities are involved in SVB and covers web sites - the benefits, challenges and limits
Section 4 covers the role of the media in shaping teenagers' behaviour and attitudes and how the media could contribute to raising awareness about and prevention of, the bullying problem.

REVIEWER’S COMMENTS ON THE DOCUMENT:

In section 1 the authors link what happens in the classroom with what happens in society as a whole, especially with the development and use of new technologies. Seven types of cyberbullying are clearly described, including 'Flaming' - passionate discussions on line by means of electronic messages that use a vulgar and offensive language. Useful statistical information is given from a number of different countries and people involved are categorized into three groups aggressors, victims and people who are both aggressors and victims. This section also gives an interesting description of the difference between cyber bullying and 'ordinary' bullying. In an interview with Nancy Willard the main causes of cyberbullying are suggested along withsome helpful ideas on how we can help to stop it.

Happy slapping and dating violence are treated in the same way as cyber bullying with a definition, information on frequency, consequences suggestions on how to stop it.

Section 2 - after the introduction the second section begins with an introduction to the internet and the world wide web (WWW) and what it offers users with an interest in School Bullying and Violence. In particular this section suggests useful worldwide anti-bullying web sites, an online journal, campaigns and initiatives, message boards and blogs, online counselling, online communities,etc. This section also looks at the problems of using the internet as a medium that provides information on SBV and suggests strategies for ensuring good quality web resources.

Section 3 - explains why Local Authorities are involved in SBV however after reading the section we are not quite clear what is meant by 'Local Authority' in this context, as the articles' usage seems to differ from a UK understanding of the term, more towards national or Government involvement. What we liked best in this section were the paragraphs about the use of CCTV - pages 88-90. As we are a school with extensive CCTV coverage our own view is that CCTV can be part of the solution and does reduce the incidence of bullying but is perhaps more use in providing evidence for subsequent investigations and for the prevention of future incidents e.g. by showing footage to all participants )vitims, bullies, bystanders, parents etc) nb we do not have CCTV in toilets!)

Section 4 - the role of the mass media, we found the section on the effects of mass media to be most interesting and do agree with the suggestion that SBV only appears in the mass media irregularly. We also liked the 'conclusions' section which we felt made interesting reading.

In conclusion we have to say that although this report is interesting and contains a lot of researched factual information, to an English speaker it is a 'challeging read' in that the English does not flow for the reader and the article is more for an academic reasearcher than for a teacher or Headteacher looking for a solution to a bullying problem.

NAME OF THE REVIEWING ORGANISATION:

Wilsthorpe Community School

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