JOURNALISM 392W - Bullying Project

I think my favorite part of this project so far was the article about the anti-bullying task force by Heikkinen. It was the first one in the series that showed me that something real is being done to affect change in South Hadley Schools. That's something I had not seen before. Most of the coverage up until now has been highly critical of every aspect of the school leading up to and immediately following the case.

Because of that I also think that this project serves a community service purpose. Rather than focus on the conflict and try to determine who was wrong and how to punish everyone, Steve Fox' class is framing this story on a civic level. They are focusing on the community and on the steps being taken to rebuild and restructure. On top of that, they are taking their coverage of the situation and putting in context. They have other articles citing other suicides and what they have been related too. They talk about bullying related to everything from homosexuality to food allergies. I think it's an important part of processing something like this to have it placed within the context of a larger national or global trend.

Having said all of this, I should say that I am a bit concerned that some of the articles are rather shallow. While they have covered many issues, they have rarely been able to dig into them. I would imagine that has a lot to do with being inexperienced or being a college student, but as the project progresses I would like to see more thorough investigation.