A content analysis of South Korean newspaper coverage of adolescent cyberbullying

Abstract

This study aims to understand the changing frameworks, perspectives and contents of cyberbullying over the years of enactment and amendments made to the School Violence Act. A total of 172 news articles published from 2004 to 2021 were first analysed by content and with a chronological segmentation strategy. In the early years, newspapers reported mostly verbal/written and sexual/visual cyberbullying, while exclusion/extortion emerged only recently. The causes of cyberbullying changed from more individual-oriented ones to societal factors. Physical and psychological harms were consistently reported, but few indicated relational harms. Nowadays, laws/policies are gaining more emphasis as a solution to cyberbullying than services and/or interventions. © 2023 National Children's Bureau and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.