Amanda Todd suicide:

A Comparison of Mainstream and Alternative Media



Amanda Todd suicide:

A Comparison of Mainstream and Alternative Media

Mainstream media (MSM) are referred to those media which spread through largest distribution channels that characterize what the most of media consumers are likely to encounter. This term also signify those media that usually reflective of current thoughts, influence, or action. In contrast, alternative media are referred to (newspapers, radio, television, magazines, movies, Internet, etc.) that offers alternative information to the mainstream media in a particular framework, whether the mainstream media are business-related, supported by public, or owned by governments. This means that alternative communication and means not only dealing with the internal problems of a group, but can work with any current information from the perspective of interest to community members who participate in it.

The illustration of the mainstream media can be the the CTV and the Globe and Mail. The CTV has done an article and the article was “Tormenters target Amanda Todd's online memorials amid police probe”, and The Globe and Mail did an article “Amanda Todd tragedy highlights how social media makes bullying inescapable”. From a story angle, the articles focus on the most grave and recent example of the dangers of online abuse is the case of Amanda Todd. Many people assumed that bullying was the cause of Amanda Todd's suicide. Mainstream media intended to suppor the government-one through their supporters and from their work as well. This support can also be seen in these two articles Gavaghan & King (2013).

This feeling further upholds the standard of social order, which is the regular belief system that tormenting is not adequate in publicly accepted norms. Anyway, elective media does not have the same plot on this story as elective media composes from the point of the individuals. Out of their work the two articles have dicussed this issue. The New Yorker and Rabble: “Systemic sexism and the death of Amanda Todd” and "in The New Yorker: “The Story of Amanda Todd” respectively.

In both of the mainstream articles the background content id taken from the source as an evidence. The whole story of Amenda Todd and all the information on the Amenda Todd was described in the both articles. The case of Amanda Todd stirred much heated debate on the online media. However, the people fail to grasp the fact that the bullying was not the main cause of her death but was the sexual online abuse.

According to the mainstream articles, the online sexual predator was the culprit behind her death; he bullied her into exposing her private parts and then blackmailed her by taking her picture from the webcam. The predator after leaking the picture of Amanda on the internet returned the following year to threaten her again. The children in her school viewed the picture on the internet and started bullying her. The family moved to a new place to provide Amanda a chance for a new start. Even though, the episode had shaken Amanda a ...