Bullying: A Physical or Mental Game?

At university, we were given the task of creating a story idea to give to a board of directors. It had to be a legitimate story and we had to treat it as if we were actually pitching the story to the company of our choice. I knew a few people who were terrified of public speech and they dreaded this assignment, but I love public speaking. I talk too much in person anyway, so I treated the assignment like I was getting marked for doing what I do every other day. 

Below, I will post my speech. Granted, I was a little bit sick the day I presented so I generally made up most of the information. The joys of having pretty much no immune system. 

"Good morning, board members of The Australian and thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to listen to my story pitch.

Recently a thirteen-year-old took her own life in New South Wales in relation to the bullying she was receiving, raising the question of punishment for bullies in schools. Many articles accent the need for harsher punishments for these bullies, but I wish to publish an article from another angle. Bullies statistically are either a victim of bullying themselves, are jealous of the victim in some way or a socio/psychopath (which is a slim chance). In any case, the punishments set for bullies are not appropriate, seeing as most bullies see suspension/detention as a reward. No doubt, the bullies still need to be told that what they do is not acceptable in society. Children who bully others should not be receiving harsher punishments, but be approached from another angle and they should be put through counselling.

This article should be run through the online page of The Australian. This is because the target audience  (teachers and the like) are statistically more likely to read online versions of The Australian than print versions of any other news outlet). I chose to reach out to teachers because they are the ones who can actually make a change in the punishments of bullies. The teachers have the inside track, being the guardians of children while at school. The news values I find in this story are relevance due to the recent death, continuity, proximity, and it has the beginnings of ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ due to the harsh topics of violence and deaths.  The angle I wish to take is that bullies should be treated as victims because they are in some form or another. The approximate length of the article will be a minimum of 500 words.

The media that I chose to incorporate will be a link towards the end of the article to this video. In this video an infamous bully is actually shown to be a victim himself and only acted in anger that he had stored for so long. If teachers had addressed that before any of the bullying started, a lot of anger, injury and regret could have been avoided. Within the article, I would hope to have a quote or two from either/or a bully or parent of a bully, explaining their side of it, or possibly a professional point of view from a psychologist who deals with bullied kids.

I really believe that The Australian should publish this article because although bullying is finally being taken seriously, only the degree of punishment seems to be changing. If the public, mainly teachers, were to become aware of another way of approaching bullying, the cycle of bullying.

Thank you for bearing with me. Any questions?"

The video that I showed them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5Noe8nvREE

I chose to report on bullying because I was greatly affected by bullying throughout primary school, and most of high school. In primary school, I was bullied by a lot of people but when I got to high school it wasn't that much of an issue. Growing up in a situation that bullying was considered to be normal, I developed a mentality that made bullying a necessity in any situation. When I got to high school and I found no form of bullying in my immediate area, I began to create it. Thankfully, I had friends around me who called me on what I was doing and corrected me, but not everyone is that blessed to have those sorts of people. 

Bullying is a serious problem, but it's mainly a mental game.