Bullying behind the screens
by Michèle Nardelli
UniSA researchers are about to embark on a bullying research project that will employ some of the same technologies modern bullies are using to harass their victims.
With funding support from the Federal Government, Dr Barbara Spears from UniSA’s School of Education will be working with a team of UniSA and Flinders University colleagues to complete an innovative podcasting project that will deliver real stories about bullying to the Internet environment.
The $70,000 project feeds into a national bullying survey being undertaken by researchers at Edith Cowan University.
"The growing role of the Internet in mediating bullying behaviours is of real concern," Dr Spears said.
"The kind of bullying we are looking at is covert and essentially social or relational. It can be the nasty notes or text messages, the social exclusion of an individual, the criticism and lack of acceptance by the ‘in groups’. It is this behind-the-scenes bullying that has now graduated to a behind-the-screens presence through the Internet.
"What we are finding is that sites like MySpace and Facebook, as well as chat rooms and blogs are being used as platforms for bullying and it can get pretty nasty. In some instances whole ‘hate sites’ have been constructed as a means of getting at the victim.
"The transition of bullying into the cyberworld creates a kind of parallel universe for both the victims and perpetrators where the behaviours can go undetected by others."
Dr Spears said the project will bring bullying scenarios to light by recording the experiences of real people – students who have been bullied, teachers trying to deal with issues, and parents and counsellors.
"The aim then is to collate an online storybook, where their stories can be podcast by anyone wanting better insights into the impacts of bullying," she said.
"As researchers we will undertake a narrative analysis of the stories to develop a more comprehensive understanding of covert bullying."
The project is being carried out with strong support and engagement from the Coalition to Decrease Bullying Harassment and Violence in SA schools, a body established to look at the issues across the whole education sector.
Initial stories have been gathered from 10 schools in South
Australia, half of which were Catholic or independent schools.
Students will then train others in recording stories digitally, and
gather more stories, almost as roving reporters. The stories will be
assessed by an expert reference group and many of them will be made
available for the podcasting project, which will be completed later
this year.
"Cyberspace is opening up as a very real and expanding environment for covert bullying," Dr Spears said.
"We suspect what we know about it so far is really just the tip of the iceberg. We need to learn more about the problem. We need to make sure that information is available to others and trying to do that where the action is, in the cyber-environment, is probably a good start."