School bullying and teen suicide in the Spanish press: From journalistic taboo to boom

Abstract

Introduction. The current research deals with the treatment of schoolbullying and the news about the suicide of adolescents in the Spanish press. Methodology. The objective is to measure the importance the newspapers give to this phenomenon to ascertain if the interest of newspapers runs parallel to the occurrence of the most serious cases or if the agenda-setting outstands schoolbullying as a main social problem. Results. Data were obtained after accounting 8,421 news items published in reference newspapers between 2004 and 2017, and going deeper into the 222 that directly address the eight cases of teen suicide in Spain during the research period. Conclusions. Media interest for the problema is growing up, although with strong narrative deficiencies. Predominates a sensationalist view focused in autolysis cases, which are no more considerad a taboo topic by its possible imitation effect, and the presumption of inocence is oftenly not respected.