Journalistic treatment of adolescent cyberbullying in the Spanish press

Abstract

The way in which the mass media tackle certain social problems, such as cyberbullying in adolescence, greatly conditions media interest and social perception and ultimately affects its right approach and eradication. For this reason, the present study analyzes the image of cyberbullying which transmit two important Spanish media, the newspaper El País and the newspaper El Mundo. Twenty-six journalistic texts published over a period of two years were analyzed by the content analysis methodology. Among the outstanding results was observed a greater tendency to the analysis of cyberbullying against sensationalism. In spite of valuing the treatment that they make of the adolescent cyberbullying how sufficient, it is recommended to both newspapers greater efforts in the struggle against this problem, as well as providing reliable information, resources of assistance and encouraging its denunciation.