Mean girls in the press: a content analysis of two Toronto newspapers

Recent criminological scholarship characterizes media attention to aggressive girls, or “mean girls,” as a moral panic, which is correlated with the creation of increasingly punitive antibullying policies in North America. Content analysis was used to uncover how news attention to youth aggression around the time of Reena Virk’s murder contributed to this moral panic in Toronto newspapers. Results indicate that Virk’s murder helped change the frequency and nature of news coverage of girls’ bullying. Reporting on girls’ bullying significantly increased and the dominant news frame falsely presented girls’ bullying as a major and rising problem in schools. The news coverage coincided with the development of more punitive Canadian youth policies. Recommendations for future research, theoretical development, and media practice are provided.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Criminology

Grantor

University of Ontario Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Fyfe, Alison

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• DeKeseredy, Walter

• Moral panic
• Mean girls
• Youth aggression
• Newspapers
• Canada

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10155/203

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ontariotechu.scholaris.ca:10155/203