Bullies and Mean Girls on Screen and in Print

The numerous anti-bullying programmes in schools across the United States have done little to reduce the number of reported bullying instances. One major flaw in a majority of the programs and other books on bullying is that little attention has been paid to the role of the media and popular culture in adolescents' bullying and mean girl behaviour. This book addresses media role models in television, film, picture books, and the Internet in the realm of bullying and relational aggression. It highlights a significant number of portrayals with unproductive strategies that lead to poor resolutions or no resolution at all. Young viewers may learn ineffective, even dangerous, ways of handling aggressive situations. Victims may feel discouraged when they are unable to handle the situation as easily as in media portrayals. They may also feel their experiences are trivialised by comic portrayals. Entertainment programming, aimed particularly at adolescents, often portray adults as incompetent or uncaring and include mean spirited teasing. In addition, overuse of the term ""bully"" and defining all bad behavior as ""bullying"" may dilute the term and begin to trivialise the problem.