Fear sells papers

After all, when we look at the issue of teenage depression, bullying is traditionally cited as a primary pressure that might lead children to feel isolated and ostracised - but perhaps the current prominence of online technologies has knocked the issue off its proverbial perch.

Even the most passive observer might conclude that constant teasing and taunting of peers is a far more reasonable and tangible motive for suicide than a website or a “weepy” subculture. Yet the possible impact of bullying on the girls received so little coverage as to be invisible under the deluge of stories attributing it to the spurious influences outlined above.

Scouring the databases of our major news publications reveals just two articles that suggest bullying was the primary cause; “Bullying on teen’s sad road to oblivion”, by Neil McMahon in The Sydney Morning Herald on April 28, and “It’s hard to be emo and be respected”, by Jack Sargeant on May 3.

Both stories contain compelling arguments and information suggesting bullying may have been responsible. McMahon’s article references comments made by the girls’ school friends suggesting “that Stephanie at least was enduring harassment at school so severe she was desperate to escape”.

This harassment includes an incident that occurred just days before she disappeared, in which a group of students cornered her in a locker room and abused her to the point at which, according to a friend, “She was over it, she was so worn down, sick of it. You could see it in her face.”

Jack Sargeant’s article in The Australian broadens the scope, decrying the improper characterisation of the emo subculture as a legitimate cause. Instead he points the finger at “the mainstream culture that implicitly legitimises the process of bullying through the stigmatisation of social and cultural difference”. But these articles were small exceptions to coverage that was largely superficial and misleading.

Ultimately, such shallow reporting undercuts the spread of any cautionary information that could benefit the most important audience for a story of this nature - teenagers and their parents. Educating people with such flimsy reasoning only worsens their lack of understanding and creates unjustified fears.

The manner in which the suicide pact of Stephanie Gestier and Jodie Gater was reported by the mainstream press can only be remembered as a sad failure in its duty to keep the public informed, and a dishonour to the memories of two teenagers who deserved to truly be heard.