The repeated (mis)use of technology to harass, intimidate, or terrorize another person (Franek, 2004)
Published in Chapter:
Towards a Communication-Based Approach to Cyber-Bullying
Artemio Ramirez, Jr. (The Ohio State University, USA), Matthew S. Eastin (Lasell College, USA), Jennifer Chakroff (The Ohio State University, USA), and Vincent Cicchirillo (University of Texas at Austin, USA)
Copyright: © 2008
|Pages: 14
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-863-5.ch026
Abstract
Cyber-bullying, or the repeated (mis)use of technology to harass, intimidate, or terrorize another person (Franek, 2004), is a growing problem among adolescents and teenagers in schools. Although cyberbullying inherently implicates important aspects of the communication process, scholars interested in computer-mediated communication have been slow to investigate this phenomenon. This chapter presents an initial effort to document this phenomenon from a communication-based perspective and offers a theoretical foundation for its examination. In so doing, the present chapter provides a review of how the concept of bullying has been traditionally been understood, contextualizes bullying within a mediated context, discusses existing research on cyber-bullies and victims, and applies existing theoretical approaches to understand the motivation behind and effects of cyber-bullying.