The Future

I have been lucky enough to be able to acquire an internship at the place I have dreamt about having an internship at since high school, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. My reason for stating this is that I will now be able to be directly involved in writing stories about children.

I have learned so much through the research I have done for this blog and am so excited to be able to use my new knowledge to help me at the position I am moving into.

Through my research and blogging I have realized that the majority of media coverage that is done on children is when they do something bad, rather than when they do something good. The stories also highlight, for the most part, the innocence of the child or how ever the child is portrayed by the majority of the people surrounding the story.

As I stated before, journalists need to investigate more and dig deeper in order to truly be able to portray children and anyone for that matter in the way in which they should be portrayed.

As I begin my internship with the Communications and Marketing Department at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, I hope to be able to convey the stories of the children and families in the true essence of who they are and what their purpose truly is.

It is important to me to be able to make a difference, especially a difference in the way in which children are portrayed within the news media.

Television shows, movies, social media platforms, and the news all make up a peer pressure system that can sometimes overtake and overshadow what is truly happening and who it is truly happening to. It is my hope that I will be able to take my newly acquired knowledge and be able to prove to others and myself that people, especially children, can be portrayed in the way in which they are truly meant to be portrayed.

This blog post does not require any links or outside sources because it is simply an ending to one chapter and a beginning to another.

Blogging for this semester has been a great experience that I hope to be able to continue in the future. However, maybe trying to stay more constant an up-to-date on it.

I do encourage others to at least try to blog at least once in your life because it is an experience that truly does teach you a lot. As this semester comes to a close, just as my college career is quickly coming to an end, I am happy that I know have some experience in blogging and that I now have an outlet where I can let my opinions and research be seen and heard.

Thank you for those of you who have kept up on my blog posts and have learned something along the way. Remember, you never truly know the truth about something until you experience it for yourself. Therefore, try new things and absolutely research so that you can be more knowledgeable about whatever subject you want to know more about.

Thanks again and happy blogging :)

--- Bri

Portraying School Violence and the Kids That Kill

Through the different posts I have done, I have discussed specific examples of cases in which the news media has reported and the way in which the media portrayed the people involved. It is now time to look more generally at how the media tackles the idea of school violence and what people think about the way in which the media reports on such violence and incidents.

First, there are a lot of shows that have tackled the idea of school violence and other school-related problems, such as Degrassi, ICarly, Gossip Girl, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and other teen and adolescent aimed shows. One series in particular aims to tackle a lot of school-related violence and problems, Glee.

Glee Cast during Shooting Star episode

In a recent episode of the show titled, "Shooting Star," the cast took on the topic of school shootings. Although the show has normally done a great job at tackling hard issues dealing with school-related topics, the episode is receiving a lot of bad reviews. Some reviews stating that the episode depicts school shootings as something that is accidental and something that is not that serious. However, school shootings and all school violence are very serious.

I do have to say that to me, the show does an amazing job at tackling the hard topics, such as bullying and stereotyping.

Another show is also tackling school violence, in particular mass school shootings. The show, Guns In America will be taking a look at mass shootings that have been taking place since the Columbine Massacre. The series season will tackle topics ranging from the tragic case of Kip Kinkel at Thurston High; Adam Lanza, the shooter at Sandy Hook; and the Safe Schools Initiative.

Advertisement photo for the series

This series from PBS America is seen to be a series that will be highly watched.

To find out more about the series, click here.

Not everyone is happy about not only the way that shows are portraying these tragedies, but also how the media is seemingly "glorifying school shootings," as stated by Roger Ebert.

Ebert basically stated that the news media influences school violence and events such as Columbine because the children see how famous someone becomes when they do something so horrible that they think to themselves that if they do the same they will become famous as well.

Ebert discusses how the news media portrays young killers and kids who act out as a major media event that is plastered everyone for everyone to see. The people become instant stars and everyone knows who they are. Ebert states that the news media should not publicize the killers but rather the victims since that is where the truly story lies.

My opinion?

I do want television shows and movies to tackle the issues of school violence and bullying, and I do want the media to report on the topics as well. However I agree with Ebert in that the news media portrays these kids as sensations and makes them highly publicized. The victims to me are the important part and I think in a lot of instances the bullies and the killers are the ones who get the most stuff written about them and have the biggest depictions within the news media.

The news media, in my mind, needs to do a lot more investigating and also needs to get down to the true stories and what is at the heart of stories about school violence, the victims.

Sources:
http://www.tvwise.co.uk/2013/04/pbs-america-announces-guns-in-america-season/

http://jezebel.com/5968669/roger-ebert-calls-out-the-media-on-glorifying-school-shootings

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-207_162-57579323/glee-takes-on-school-gun-violence-in-shooting-star/

School Bullying

I now feel it is a good time to begin to discuss school bullying and how the kids that were bullied or the kids that were the bullies were and are portrayed in the media. I first began my research on school bullying by doing a general Google search on School Bullying, this search lead me to the TruTv photo gallery of the worst cases of bullying. (1) Of course, just like when I saw the list of the Top Ten Young Killers, I was astonished that there is a list of the worst cases of bullying. In my mind every case of bullying is a bad case and something that should not be taken lightly.


One case that I did find that really disturbed me was the case of Phoebe Prince.

What is the story?

A 15-year-old girl, Phoebe Prince, immigrated to America from Ireland. She suffered from months of intense and extensive bullying from several of her classmates for months and eventually hanged herself on January 14, 2010.

The worst part about this story is that after the group of bullies found out that Prince had killed herself, they took to the social media platforms saying such things as "mission accomplished," and many other crude comments. Also, the school district knew about the bullying because they were informed by the girl's aunt, mother, and several other students regarding the bullying that was taking place, however they chose to simply ignore it.

How did the media handle this story?

The bullying and suicide of this girl led to international news coverage of the problem of bullying in United States schools. The media portrayed Prince as a pretty Irish girl who was bullied by six monstrous teens that had no care for what they had caused and had been doing to this nice girl.

This case portrayed not only Prince and her bullies in certain ways, it also portrayed bullying in general in a very particular way. The incident of Phoebe Prince led to anti-bullying campaigns as well as many other anti-bullying and zero tolerance legislation to be passed by lawmakers due to a lot of pressure.

There have also been books written about this incident that portray Prince as an innocent girl who was a nice teenager and was just simply trying to be a normal teenager at a school with horrible people who seemingly tried to make her life a living hell everyday. However, one author in particular portrays Prince in a completely different light.

A critic really?

A journalist for Slate magazine and an author, Emily Bazelon, depicts Prince as a bully herself and portrays the teens who had bullied Prince as sympathetic and not having been very harsh on Prince at all. The author also states in her book about Phoebe Prince that the media had mixed facts with opinions and had reduced her death to being about bullying, which Bazelon says is a myth.

Thankfully, many people are on the attack and are in fact giving facts in order to prove Bazelon wrong and prove that Phoebe Prince was a victim and that in this case in particular and in most bullying cases you cannot blame the victim.

My opinion?

This is a sad story that never should have happened, like most bullying cases I have looked at, the school districts simply ignore the problem of bullying hoping that it will magically go away. This bullying incident, like all others, is a tragedy and I for one am glad that the people involved did have disciplinary actions brought upon them and feel glad that now school districts and states are taking a stand against bullying.

Bullying truly does affect everyone and the media should not depict or portray the victims of bullying in a false light and they definitely should not make it seem as if the victim deserved it or is to blame. The media portraying the victim as the problem is not only unfair, it is also extremely unethical and goes against the SPJ Code of Ethics.

Additional resources regarding this story. To see a few videos regarding this incident, click here.

Sources:
1 http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/photogallery/worst-cases-of-bullying.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Phoebe_Prince

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/42898390/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/two-teens-mass-bullying-case-plead-guilty/

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/05/05/teens-who-admitted-to-bullying-phoebe-prince-sentenced/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/phoebe-prince-south-hadley-high-school-new-girl-driven-suicide-teenage-cyber-bullies-article-1.165911

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blake-fleetwood/the-mean-girls-mobbing-le_b_521360.html

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/03/new_book_takes_sympathetic_vie.html

Mary Bell the Notorious 11 Year-Old Killer

My example for today that I will be analyzing is about a child killer named, Mary Bell.

I first found out about this young girl who had killed two young boys when she was 11 by simply doing a Google search on children who killed. I was very surprised to find that there was actually a list of the Top Ten Young Killers (2).

What!?! Someone actually sat down, researched, and then wrote up the list of the top ten young murders. This was absolutely astonishing to me that these children are getting this type of attention, simply because they are murderers. Instead of simply forgetting about the horrible people who committed such heinous things, the news media highlights them and makes them even more famous for years after their trials.

However, that is a topic for another day. What I am focusing on today is about the specific instance of Mary Bell, her crimes, and how she was reported on.

Mary Bell was age 10 and then age 11 when she murdered two boys, one who was 4 and the other who was 3. She had strangled both boys and had tried to accuse her friend of the murders. However, he reactions after both boys were found made a lot of people very suspicious since she was seen to have been laughing and smiling at the dead boys' bodies.

The way that Bell was portrayed in the media was as a child who had no sense of remorse and who had hurt other children before murdering these two boys. Mary was seen as manipulative and intelligent. A lot of people felt that she had known exactly what she had done and felt no remorse what-so-ever.

After reading articles on Mary, I fully agree with those people. When she was young she knew exactly was she was doing and seemingly enjoyed hurting people. I think in the case of Mary Bell that the media portrayed her in the correct way, which is how she actually was, however I do think that there should have been more investigation into Mary's mother and what could have possibly turned Mary into this type of person.

Thankfully, not all child killers are as sick, demented, and aware of their actions as Mary Bell was.

Not much is written about Mary Bell anymore because after she was released from prison and had a child, her and her daughter were granted lifelong anonymity by the high courts. This means that current identity and whereabouts of Bell and her daughter cannot be disclosed and that there is no reporting on the two.

In my opinion this is a good things because as quoted by the mother of one of the boys that Mary had murdered, "The best that could happen would be for her to remain anonymous and just vanish and we can get on with our lives."(1) The victims of the murders are what is important, not the murders and why they did it. More focus should be put on the victims.

Sources:

1 http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/bell/index_1.html
2 http://listverse.com/2011/05/14/top-10-young-killers/
http://www.crimecasefiles.com/forum/famous-killers/13522-mary-bell-child-from-hell.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1110123/Child-killer-Mary-Bell-grandmother-51-But-I-left-grief-says-victims-mother.html

Local School Violence

I first found out about this story after I was discussing my blog topic with a friend of mine. She stated that around Halloween of last year there was a young boy who had brought a knife to school and had tried to attack another student. Her daughter also attends the Allegheny Valley school and my friend had received a letter from the school district after the incident had occurred. Therefore, I decided to look up the incident myself.

What happened?

According to articles on both WPXI and KDKA, an 8-year-old elementary student took a knife to school and confronted another child by holding the knife to the child's throat and making slashing motions. The child who was confronted was thankfully not hurt.

Based on both articles, there was not a reason given for why the child brought the knife to school and confronted this child. However, the both articles did state that Children Youth and Family Services was involved in the investigation of the matter.

Both articles make it seem as if the 8-year-old boy is troubled and do not give an answer for why the young boy pulled the knife on the other child, who was also an 8-year-old.

What does the school district say?

Other than the actual incident, the way in which the story is reported from the standpoint of the school district is quite troubling. The school district says that all weapons are banned and they have no idea how the child got the knife into the school. The school district also stated that they are taking "appropriate actions" and that they sent a letter home to parents explaining the incident. However, the letter failed to report that the knife had been pulled on another student. (1)

The school district also stated that they have no idea what to do about this matter which is, to me, not reassuring at all. The school district said that they have never had anything like this happen before so they do not know what to do, however it is a school district and therefore there should be some sort of system and disciplinary action set up regarding a matter such as this one. By the school stating that they have no idea what to do makes it seem as if they are not very well-prepared to keep the children safe while at school.

Any updates?

I have searched many different sources to try and find an update on this incident and story, however I could not locate one. There still is not definite answer for why the student brought the knife to school and pulled it on that particular student.



Sources:
1 http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/student-accused-pulling-knife-classmate-allegheny-/nSnZr/
2 http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2012/10/25/police-investigating-after-boy-allegedly-brings-knife-to-school/

The One That Most Have Heard of

This post will be on the Columbine High School Massacre.

As most people know, the Columbine Massacre occurred on April 20, 1999 in the small, suburban town of Littleton, Colorado. The incident was that two high-school seniors, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris.

The two young men entered the high school with semiautomatic rifles, pistols, and several explosives. In less than 20 minutes they killed 12 fellow students and a teacher and wounded 21 others. The violence came to an end when both of the young men took their own lives. Officials later found two propane tank bombs in the cafeteria that the two young men had placed there, that which if would have gone off, would have killed many more people.

So how were the two portrayed in the media?

The two young men according to a New York Times article was portrayed as suicide killers, as the title of the article is, "A 'Suicide Mission'" (1) The article goes on to explain that the two students were allegedly "part of a group of misfits who called themselves the trench coat mafia..." (1)

What is the trench coat mafia?

In the article this group is described as expressing "disdain for racial minorities and athletes," and "banding together, dressing in dark Gothic-style clothing, including long black coats." (1)

Who were the gunmen attacking?

Based upon many article, including the New York Times article, the gunmen were targeting minority members, athletes, and anyone who had poked fun at them or bullied them in some way.

During the time around this horrible tragedy, the two young men were portrayed by the media as, "disaffected videogamers who wore cowboy dusters" (2), goths or loners, and two boys who were troubled and were trying to kill those who had been mean to them. However, according to a book written by Dave Cullen, a writer for the New York Times; Times of London; Washington Post; Slate; Salon, Guardian, Daily Beast; and many others. The man spent 10 years researching Columbine and looking in-depth at both boys' diaries, emails, appointment books, videotapes, police affidavits, and through interviews with witnesses, friends and survivors.

So what's the real story?

According to a USA Today article titled, "10 years later, the real story behind Columbine," (2) the two young men were actually troubled boys who were not bullied but rather they were bullies based on their diaries. The two also did not intend to only kill minority members, athletes, or anyone else who had made fun of them; they actually were trying to kill everyone, including their friends.

The attack that the two hoped to ensue was actually planned to be a grand terrorist bombing that led to a shooting rampage since the bombs that Harris had built did not go off as they were supposed to. The two had planned the attack out for more than a year and "psyched each other up for an Oklahoma City-style terrorist bombing, an apolitical, over-the-top revenge fantasy against years of snubs, slights and cruelties, real and imagined." (2)

The two young men were not ordinary boys who were bullied into retaliating; not boys who had played too many violent videogames; not two boys who just wanted to be famous; or anything else that the media portrayed them to be. Instead the two boys were actually two young men with serious psychological problems that needed help desperately. (2) However, the two were very different from one another, Harris was a psychopath and Klebold was a depressed boy. Both absolutely needed help, but one was out to hurt other people in order to get what he desired, Harris. While the other just wanted to die himself and hurt others in order to hurt him, Klebold.

Based on Harris and Klebold's journals, the two young men actually planned to kill thousands of people with the bombs that they had built, over 100 bombs, and then to only use the guns to kill people who has survived the bombings. However, the bombs did not go off and therefore led to the shooting rampage that ensued. The two boys had apparently also planted two bombs, one on each of their cars in the parking lot of the school, that were to supposed to kill police, rescue teams, journalists, and parents who came to see what was happening at the school. However, once again, the bombs did not go off. "Their vision was to create a nightmare so devastating and apocalyptic that the entire world would shudder at their power." (3)

My opinion?

This tragedy was and still is truly a shame that apparently could have been much, much worse had those bombs gone off. Honestly, the news media ran with hyped up stories and portrayed the two boys as people who were getting revenge for being bullied and ran with stories about them being goths and a part of a rebellious group. The news media should have portrayed the two boys how they truly were, which were terrorists that needed to be stopped. In the case of this incident, the news media did not do enough hard investigation into the actualities of the situation and the two young men. If they had and if police had, this tragedy may have been prevented or at the very least, everyone would know that the two boys should not be receiving sympathy because they were "bullied," they should be seen as the natural born killers with no sense of care for anyone one else.


Sources:
1  A 'SUICIDE MISSION': Authorities Say Killers Also Used Bombs -- at least 20 injured
By JAMES BROOKE -------New York Times (1923-Current file); Apr 21, 1999; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851-2009)
2 http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-13-columbine-myths_N.htm
3http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/assessment/2004/04/the_depressive_and_the_psychopath.single.html
4 http://www.davecullen.com/columbine.htm

What's Next?

Now that we have a background on in general how school violence is reported on and why school violence happens, what is a specific example of school violence being reported?

The example that I will be using to analyze is: Melanie Conn and the bullying that she endured.

The title of the first article on found on this girl was, "Melanie Conn, 13-Year-Old, Bound In Plastic Wrap By Boy Bullies While Waiting For School Bus," the article was posted on September 5, 2011 on the Huffington Post. (1)

The girl was allegedly wrapped in plastic wrap by two of her male peers while waiting for the school bus in Ormond beach, Florida. However the twist to this story is that the bus driver who knew about the incident did nothing. The bus driver doing nothing goes against the school district's policy on how bullying and violence is to be reported.

This article (1) begins by talking about this 13 year-old girl, and then moves onto how bullying and violence across the nation is not being reported and how even when adults to intervene on the violence sometimes they themselves become victims.

The mother of this girl, like most parents, feels that the school should have stepped in and that not enough disciplinarily is being done. (2) The mother of one of the bullies who had wrapped the girl up stated that she does not fully understand why her son would do this since he has been a victim of bullying himself. (2)

In my opinion bullying like this does happen everyday and the way that the media reported on this story makes it seem as if the girl is after media attention since while being interviewed even stated that this incident is not a joke and that this is very serious. However, bullying like this happening everyday is not acceptable and should be taken care of. This girl and her mother should not be being portrayed as attention hungry, but rather as the victims that they are.

The school should also be taking responsibility for this incident and should be responding in a more direct way. The statements that the school district made also make it seem as if the girl should have just kept her mouth shut about the incident, as if the incident was not that big of a deal and was just some harmless fun.

This is a girl who was scared and bullied, she is the victim and she should be portrayed in that way.

To see the video about this incident you can click here, this is from the Huffington Post article.

Sources:
1 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/05/melanie-conn-13-year-old-_n_1858325.html
2 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/bullies-bind-teen-girl-plastic-wrap-chin-waist-couldn-free-article-1.1152567