oa Vlaamse krantenverslaggeving over cyberpesten

Flemish newspaper coverage on cyberbullying

The amount of coverage on cyberbullying, as well as the way the issue is portrayed in the media, may influence the perceptions of policy makers and the public at large. However, few studies have paid attention to the media coverage on cyberbullying. The current paper tries to fill the existing gap by analyzing the articles on cyberbullying in six Flemish newspapers. This explorative quantitative content analysis shows that cyberbullying is a recurrent topic in the Flemish newspapers since 2005. The issue is presented as a societal problem (as indicated by research results), that is already being addressed by a wide range of actors and actions on different (local/Flemish) levels. Cases seem to become especially newsworthy when the cyberbullying is related to suicide. Future research might investigate how the amount and type of media coverage on cyberbullying influences the perception of this problem by youngsters, parents and the public at large.