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
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