Abstract:

Cyberbullying is widely recognized as a destructive phenomenon, especially when schoolchildren are involved. A recent study showed that victims of cyberbullying were significantly likely also to be victims of traditional school bullying (Baldry, Farrington, & Sorrentino, 2017). School administrations and teachers have made efforts to work on cyberbullying prevention and intervention programs (Tanrikulu, 2017). Scholars also indicated school librarians can be important figures in anti-cyberbullying efforts, such as providing literacy education regarding cyber ethics and safety (Shanahan & Farmer, 2010).

As a vehicle for information dissemination, YouTube presents both opportunities and challenges, and it is the most frequently visited social media site in the US. (Smith & Anderson, 2018). This high exposure level means that YouTube may have a considerable impact on Internet users (Cheng, Dale, & Liu, 2007). As society pays more attention to cyberbullying, YouTube offers an increasing amount of content about this issue. In fact, YouTube has been used by researchers to examine how serious social issues have been addressed.

The present study exams the content of YouTube videos related to cyberbullying in school settings, to identify the core messages of the videos, as well as to assess the potential role of school librarians in addressing this issue. This study has implications for integrating effective and carefully curated YouTube content into anti-cyberbullying instruction in schools, and makes suggestions for school librarians’ involvement in providing this instruction.

A content analysis method is applied to deconstruct a sample of 162 systematically selected videos, resulting in descriptive statistics for 65 variables. Qualitative open coding was applied to videos contents that related to school librarians/libraries, to fuel a discussion of the potential of school librarians’ as a point of intervention in addressing cyberbullying.

The findings showed that cyberbullying behaviors, harmful message formats, and the consequences for the victims were frequently addressed the most. Conversely, the concepts of consequences for the cyberbullies, and coping strategies for victims were present in fewer than 20% of videos. Furthermore, school librarians were very rarely depicted in videos. The researcher discusses possible approaches for school librarians to contribute more proactively to creating and disseminating educational anti-cyberbullying videos, and to enhance their visibility as a potential intermediary in addressing cyberbullying.

References:
[1] Baldry, A. C., Farrington, D. P., & Sorrentino, A. (2017). School Bullying and Cyberbullying Among Boys and Girls: Roles and Overlap. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 26(9), 937-951.
[2] Cheng, X., Dale, C., & Liu, J. (2007). Understanding the characteristics of Internet short video sharing: YouTube as a case study. Technical Report arXiv:0707.3670v1, Cornell University
[3] Shanahan, S., & Farmer, L. S. (2010). The role of the school library media center program in the education and prevention of cyberbullying. In Educational Media and Technology Yearbook (pp. 163-176). Springer, Boston, MA.
[4] Smith, A., & Anderson, M. (2018). Social Media Use in 2018. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/
[5] Tanrikulu, I. (2017). Cyberbullying prevention and intervention programs in schools: A systematic review. School Psychology International, 39(1), 74-91.

Keywords:

Cyberbullying, YouTube videos, school librarians.