Bullying refers to deliberate and repeated intimidation or oppression of a person or people deemed less powerful (Lines, 2008). Bullies socially, physically, emotionally, verbally, or psychologically intimidate people as a means for exerting their power or for enjoyment. It is a serious problem not only in learning institutions but also in the society. For this reason, many people have authored articles meant to discourage the practice. This paper uses content analysis method to analyze the articles published in two famous blogs. Content analysis holds that language plays a role in constructing meaning to social issues (Pope, Mays, & Popay, 2007). Content analysis involves systematic and objective compression of information into fewer categories based on coding guidelines. The categories are counted to give a quantitative picture to the issues under investigation. Categories with higher tallies are deemed to be given more weight or are matters of great concern to the providers of the information.
A total of seventeen articles were analyzed. In these seventeen articles, the word victims appeared thirty times. Fifteen times each in the bullyinglte.wordpress.com and nobullying.com. This was an indication that victim was the main theme in these two blogs. Victims refer to a people who had experienced bullying. These two blogs publish opinions of people regarding bullying. Therefore, most of the authors of these articles were expressing their personal experiences or those of close relatives and friends in order to enlighten the society on the impacts of the practice. By telling personal accounts, the articles were made real. The articles were similar to most articles that speak about social ills. Often, the victims of the ills are given weight than other actors. They are at the center of advocacy. Often, people demand justice for the offended because they bore the burden of oppression. The contributors of the two blogs are advocating for the eradication of all aspects of bullying because it has social, physical and psychological effects on the victims.
The other major theme was cyber bullying, which appeared twenty six times. Surprisingly, the phrase was found only in articles published on nobullying.com. The other blog, bullyinglte.wordpress did not contain the phrase cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is a common concept in social media. It is an emerging form of contemporary bullying that is very prevalent in social media. It encompasses sending threatening messages to other internet users and even compelling people to do certain things on the internet, for instance, accepting friendship. Cyber bullying was not the main issue for bullyinglte.wordpress.com bloggers. Their articles were based on the conventional form of bullying known to be common in schools. Despite using online platform, none of the authors realized that a person could be intimidated on the blog. On the other hand, nobullying.com articles acknowledged that cyber bulling was as bad as conventional bullying. The articles looked into broad issues of bullying that included cyber bullying. Other categories’ themes included Canada as a whole society stopping bullying, anti bullying campaigns, anti bullying as positive, bullying and mental health had zero tallies. The zero frequencies for these categories indicate that the blog articles were not meant for academic purpose or references. They were meant to provide real information about cyber bullying. The bloggers did not pay keen interest in health issues associated with bullying and data. By avoiding academic terms, the contributors showed that the community was more concerned with occurrences than explanations for bullying.
References:
Lines, D. (2008). The bullies: Understanding bullies and bullying. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Pope, C., Mays, N., & Popay, J. (2007). Synthesizing qualitative and quantitative health evidence: A guide to methods. Maidenhead, England: Open University Press, McGraw Hill Education.
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Grammar
C
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Formatting
F
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Organization
D
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Style
D
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