Cyber Bullying: How to Beat Down Your Bully
“Digital sticks and stones can’t break
my bones, but they can hurt even more.”
Introduction
Cyber bullying is a serious issue that many are affected by and struggle to avoid. Cyber
bullying has the potential to affect all online users and the consequences are damaging.
Cyberspace is a dangerous and many internet users abuse online technology. It is important that
young internet users are taught the correct ways to use the internet in order to protect themselves
from being victim to being bullied online. The Beat Down Bully campaign is one step towards
addressing the issue and raising awareness. Similar attempts should be executed in order to put
an end to cyber bullying.
Background
Cyber bullying has been prevalent in online chat rooms, emails, and other social media
since the invention of the Internet. As the sphere of global cyber communication continues to
grow, so do the possibilities for cyber bullying to become a more prevalent, dangerous problem,
and it has. The cyber bullying phenomenon involves the usage of communication technologies to
support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group that is intended to
harm others. Again, this can occur through a variety of technological mediums including email,
instant messaging, text messaging, and social media such as Myspace and Facebook.
Past Prevalence and Prevention
To exemplify the seriousness of this issue throughout history, the University of New
Hampshire’s Crimes against Children Research Center reported that one in seventeen children
between ages ten and seventeen were threatened or harassed in cyberspace as of the year 2000.
In 2006, a Harris Interactive poll found that 43 percent of teens in the United States reported
some form of experience regarding cyber bullying in the previous year. Other speculation from
various newscasts and stories suggest that at least half or more children and youth experience
this type of bullying on a regular basis now, in 2012. But, what are we as a country doing in
order to stop this from happening?
There are numerous websites that attempt to account for what cyber bullying is, why
people do it, and how to handle it. Stopcyberbullying.org is one of the most clear and helpful. It
urges everyone to be educated on this important fact of life and to beware and know how to
handle cyber bullying when and if it does occur. In the sites “take action” section, it urges us to
“stop, block, and tell,” which is obviously a spin-off of the well-known phrase, stop, drop and
roll in case of fire. This phrase explains that when we are faced with a cyber bully, we should
stop and take a few minutes to cool down. Then, block the person or limit conversations to only
your buddy list or contacts, and then tell someone like a parent, adult, or friend what has
happened.
Another step that has emerged with the invention of search engines is the ability to
“Google it.” Not only can we Google items and ideas, but we can search for people too. With
Google, it is possible to search for our own name and see where it pops up on the Internet. This
is a good prevention tool because if our name is out there, we may track the source and have our
name removed. Or, we would at least know what information about us is available to the public.
Cyber bullying is in the here and now and it is something that requires constant attention
and study. There are tools available for those who want to learn about this issue and all of its
facets. Most of all, this type of bullying kills people, oftentimes young children, who begin to
feel as if they have no way to get away from the treatment they are receiving online. Cyber
bullying cannot be prevented in its entirety, but teaching children to be aware and to know how
to deal with it is very possible and should be taught more in schools and in homes across the
world.
Audience Analysis
Almost everyone is somewhat in touch with social media in some way or form. There is
such a vast array of different pages and profiles one can make today. It is estimated that in
December 2011, 58% of the United States population between the ages of sixteen and fifty-four
years old takes part in social media. This has increased an entire 25% in the past three years.
With this constantly rising throughout the entire world, cyber bullying is on the rise (Hutton &
Fosdick, 2011). During the school year of 2008-2009, a survey was taken of students between
the ages of 12 to 18 nationwide. In this survey 1,521,000 students reported being cyber bullied
on and off school property (DeVoe, 2011).Sadly, students aren’t the only ones partaking in cyber
bulling. In October of 2006, there was a cyber-bullying case that resulted in a teenager’s suicide.
The harasser pretended to be a fellow teenage boy that cared about Megan Meier; later he started
to harass and insult her. After some investigation it was discovered that the teenager was actually
a 48 year old mother that lived four doors down from Megan. The mother claimed that she was
making sure that Megan wasn’t talking about her daughter online. This is proof that cyberbullying doesn’t take place with school aged kids. There are numerous cases where adults
pretend to be a teenager to harass younger people.
It is because of cases like Megan Meier’s that we cannot define our audience to simply a
younger audience. If we did that, we would be stunting the growth of our campaign and ignoring
many cases of cyber-bullying that happens. Cyber-bullying is going on worldwide and it happens
in all different ages in different ways. Our audience for our campaign needs to reach as many
people as possible. Our goal is to stop cyber-bullying all in all.
Campaign Strategy
Bully Beat Down is a campaign to raise awareness about cyber bullying. The Bully Beat
Down campaign has representatives’ who are victims to online bullying and they are spread
across the United States. Representatives from Bully Beat Down visit many schools within the
surrounding states of their location. These representatives meet with the guidance counselors at
middle schools, high schools, Colleges and Universities. The purpose of their visit is to persuade
school counselors into understanding that it is extremely important for students to be aware of all
consequences and effects of cyber bullying. Representatives also promote the idea of having
classroom workshops with students. In these workshops the Bully Beat Down representatives tell
their stories about the abuse that they endured from being bullied online. The reps have many
flyers, pamphlets, and other information about being cyber bullied that they provide to the
students. In the workshop a video is played, which is interview coverage from victims, survivors,
parents, friends, teachers, and other acquaintances that have personal experience of online abuse
or have been impacted by cyber bullying. At the end of the workshop there is a private/closed
discussion that is between students and the Bully Beat Down representative. All questions are
encouraged and there is no limitation to discussion topics. At the closing of the workshop the
representative gives the students their contact information for any questions or concerns and they
are welcome to contact the representative at any hour of the day. Every individual who
represents Bully Beat Down has signed a contract that promises their dedication and signs their
involvement around the clock.
September 1, 2012 will be the first Bully Beat Down campaign rally. The Bully Beat
Down campaign has marked September 1, 2012 as the date for national recognition of cyber
bullying. The campaign’s strategy for the rally is to get as many areas in the United States as
possible to host a rally that invites the community to join in a rally and have the opportunity to
learn, advise, and exchange knowledge all while raising awareness about the serious reality of
cyber bullying. On the Beat Down Bully campaign website, www.beatdownbully.com, there is a
link to upload videos of different rallies that took place on September 1, 2012. This chain of
videos will be spread throughout the media and other public networks to continue spreading
awareness. The Longwood campus will be participating in hosting a Beat Down Bully campaign
rally on September 1, 2012 at 4:00 PM. The rally will be held on the Student Union patio where
all the Longwood community can congregate and participate in the day of recognizing cyber
bullying. There will be a keynote speaker who is a psychologist will be opening the event with a
speech to talk about how to deal with cyber bullying and how to beat down your bully.
Throughout the rest of the event there will be several speakers who will talk about their personal
stories and experiences from being affected by cyber bullying. There will be information tables
set up on the Student Union patio where people are able to get informative pamphlets about
cyber bullying and hotline numbers will be available.
Explanation of Theoretical Support
In order to make our campaign a success we have decided to use theoretical persuasion
principles and theories which will socially influence our desired target audience. In order to
deliver strong and effective campaign points Aristotle’s Deliberative Speech Method is
beneficial. Aristotle’s Deliberative Speech Method is “designed to prove that some future action
should be taken that will convince an audience that a future action will produce some advantage
or prevent some harm” (P. 36, McGraw-Hill, 2005). This describes our team goal to persuade
individuals about the effects of cyber bullying and how the issue needs to be addressed
immediately.
We have also decided to take the approach of Cognitive Dissonance Theory and
Elaboration Likelihood Model which provides emotional explanation to why our campaign
banners and posters will produce a persuaded emotional connection to the audience. The banner
and posters state, “The Cyber-Bully has come to take your friend are you ready to let go? If not
speak up” and shown on the poster is a picture of high-school students who are making fun of
another girl, while the poster is implying she could potentially harm herself, which creates
cognitive dissonance with the headline and the scenario presented in the poster’s photo.
“Cognitive dissonance Theory, developed by Leon Festinger (1957), is concerned with the
relationships among cognitions. According to cognitive dissonance theory, there is a tendency
for individuals to seek consistency among their cognitions (i.e., beliefs, opinions). When there is
an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviors (dissonance), something must change to
eliminate the dissonance. In the case of a discrepancy between attitudes and behavior, it is most
likely that the attitude will change to accommodate the behavior.”
(http://www.istheory.yorku.ca/cognitivedissonancetheory.htm)
The picture accompanying the photo produces a sense of dissonance which the audience
will feel an emotional response to. We will place these posters and banners around schools, so
there is a good chance our campaign to affect a major portion of our target audience. The
individuals who are affected by the posters and banners and then response are displaying the use
of cognitive route (peripheral-route processing), which helps to raise the awareness of the issue
for the individual by producing a poster that gets the exact message we want across. The poster
explains the situation very quickly and grabs the individual’s attention instead of making them
think extremely hard to understand the point the campaign is trying to make. By viewers
understanding the meaning faster they are more likely to seek out ways to get help for their
family and friends who may be affected by this issue and research the signs and effects of cyberbullied individuals. “The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of persuasion is a model of how
attitudes are formed and changed (see also attitude change). Central to this model is the
"elaboration continuum", which ranges from low elaboration (low thought) to high elaboration
(high thought). The ELM distinguishes between two routes to persuasion: the central route and
the peripheral route.” (http://dictionary.sensagent.com/elaboration+likelihood+model/en-en/) By
using the peripheral route our team can get our message across on the posters and banners much
faster, because it doesn’t take as much thinking to figure out the meaning as Central route does,
which is a message based on logical thinking and motivation to understand while peripheral-
route can be cues, images, sounds, or spokespeople who deliver a message very quickly to their
audience.
Plan for Evaluation the Success of the Campaign
In order to measure the success of our strategies and campaigns, we will need numerous
tactics. We plan on outreaching to as many different groups as possible and so we have different
ways to do so.
For our school aged audience, the first thing we will do is send a general survey to be
taken before our campaign comes to the school. It will be a simple survey asking questions such
as “How many hours do you spend on the internet a day?” “What type and how much social
media do you take part in?”, “Do you do any other activities online?”, “How would you define
cyber-bullying?” and “Have you ever been cyber-bullied or cyber-bullied someone?” In doing
this, we will get a general idea of our audience of this particular age. After visiting a school, We
will wait a couple months and then send another survey to the school. This survey will be a little
different than the first one that the school took; however, we it will still have the same concepts.
The survey will ask questions such as “Since our campaign has come to your school have you
seen and heard less about cyber bullying around your campus?”, “Did the campaign help you
recognize cyber bullying better?”, and “Did the campaign help you figure out what to do when
your approached by cyber bully?” Along with giving a survey, we will also be in contact with the
schools’ counselors. We will ask them about the students they see that suffer from cyberbullying and also the students that participate in it. We will contact them a couple weeks after the
campaign has come to the school and ask them how those students we discussed are doing. We
hope to find that the campaign has had a positive impact on the students of the school and has
helped combat the issue of cyber-bullying at the schools we visit.
With the general public, or post high school audience, we plan to take general surveys of
the area we are visiting. If we are at a business we will send a similar survey that we send to the
schools to the employees of the company and have them answer it before we come to visit. We
plan on doing a very similar thing for the employees or general public as we do at school, except
a more mature approach.
Conclusion
The Beat Down Bully campaign should serve as a model for other people to make an
effort in ending cyber bullying. The result of this campaign will hopefully influence more people
to speak out about the harm that this causes the online population. There are supportive resources
to seek out in getting more information about the issue of cyber bullying. These resources are
easily available to contact for any questions or concerns. Before entering an online conversation
or relation, ask yourself who is this person? What is their name? Where are they from? What are
their intentions of contact? What are the positive and negative results that will come from this
online interaction?
Bibliography
DeVoe, J., Murphy, C., & National Center for Education Statistics, (. (2011). Student Reports of
Bullying and Cyber-Bullying: Results from the 2009 School Crime Supplement to the
National Crime Victimization Survey. Web Tables. NCES 2011-336. National Center
For Education Statistics,
Hutton, G., & Fosdick, M. (2011). The Globalization of Social Media. Journal Of Advertising
Research, 51(4), 564-570. doi:10.2501/JAR -51-4-564-570
McQuade, S. C., Colt, J. P., & Meyer, N. B. (2009). Cyber bullying : protecting kids and adults
from online bullies / Samuel C. McQuade III, James P. Colt, Nancy B.B. Meyer.
Westport, Conn. : Praeger Publishers, c2009.