Fear sells papers

In the wake of the suicides of teenagers Jodie Gater and Stephanie Gestier in mid-April, it was depressing (yet predictable) that most of the commentary regarding the possible reasons behind these tragedies was sensationalist, shallow and tactless.

Faced with the imperative to inform the public about the suicides - yet stymied by a lack of genuine knowledge as to the girls’ motives - mainstream media sources throughout the country haphazardly drew conclusions relating to the two things they did know about the situation: both girls were frequent users of the social networking website MySpace; and both were identified as belonging to the subculture referred to in modern shorthand as “emo”.

The Age ran a story explaining that “Emo fans are classified as introverted, sensitive, moody and alienated, and are derided by other subcultures for self-pitying poetry commonly posted on the MySpace website” (“MySpace link to teens found dead in bush”, April 23, 2007).

The Sydney Morning Herald opened one story with “One of the two teenage girls who died in a suspected joint suicide pact posted a series of suicidal poems on the internet in the months before her death” (“Death pact teen’s grim poems”, April 23, 2007).

The story gained fresh allure recently when it was revealed the girls utilised the Internet to download step-by-step instructions on how to commit suicide (“Parents ‘sickened’ by suicide website”, Sydney Morning Herald, May 20, 2007). The father of one of the girls spoke publicly on 60 Minutes for the first time since her death on May 20, voicing his disgust that the girls were able to consult a website showing “which particular rope to use, how to do the knots, how to test that the rope won't break under your weight, under the weight of both (girls)”.

Parents have every right to be horrified that this information is so freely available. The existence of such sites is obviously a major concern, as are the slew of websites that teach users how to make bombs, encourage young girls to develop eating disorders, or promote pedophelia.

Even so, there is still a significant problem with how the mainstream media has handled the reportage of this story. By relying solely on links to the emo subculture and the MySpace website, they have created consensus around disturbingly flimsy reasoning. This journalistic methodology is geared more towards fear-mongering than ethical reporting, under the rationale that fear sells papers - and that people fear what they don’t understand.

By its very definition as a subculture, emo is widely misunderstood. As observed by one commentator, “when subcultures do enter the spotlight it is almost invariably because of a perceived crisis; traditionally, narcotic and sexual abandon, crime and suicide” (Jack Sargeant: “It’s hard to be emo and be respected”, The Australian, May 3, 2007).

As for MySpace, this mostly youth-based cultural phenomenon still eludes a significant proportion of the adult population. Out-of-touch parents of teenagers are therefore acutely vulnerable to this fear-based reportage.

But rather than try to promote understanding of the role emo and MySpace play in modern society, headline-happy sub-editors have been having a field day, producing stories that are at best highly superficial and unlikely to educate anyone.

In most coverage of the suicides, emo is purported to be a dangerous cult promoting suicide and self harm. This is not the case. Portrayal of the emo subculture has leant heavily on little “tells”, such as self-hating poetry and the perspective that “emo kids” excessively revel in feelings of misery and alienation, with little explanation of where emo came from and why it has garnered any popularity.

The subculture has its roots in a genre of independent or “indie” rock music that emphasised introspective, self-aware lyrics and themes of alienation and self-doubt. The music has evolved somewhat since then, but the core lyrical focus remains. As a result, the subculture - the music’s fan base - attracts introspective, melancholy people.

Contrary to the oft-promoted view, the emo subculture does not conjure up feelings of depression in the teenagers it “ensnares”. People gravitate towards emo culture because of already-existing feelings of depression and isolation.

A characterisation of an already misunderstood group of people as shallow as the one with which we have been provided is only going to promote fear - fear of an insidious, cult-like subculture that turns ordinary teenagers into morbid depressives - and antagonism towards them. And antagonism towards “emo kids” is only likely to increase their feelings of isolation and persecution, causing more problems, and more self-harm, down the line.

By contrast, the descriptions of MySpace were much more factual and informative, with The Age running two stories explaining how the site works and the implications for those that use it (“Public face of a personal world” and “Mirror with two faces, only one real”, April 24, 2007).

The stories were on the mark in describing it is an online community where users can create profiles describing themselves and their interests, write blogs, upload music, and communicate with people all over the world. The reports also correctly highlighted the issues that can arise from broadcasting private thoughts onto such a public space.

But regardless of their veracity, such reports were only necessitated because MySpace was imposed onto a story where it didn’t really belong - as the prime angle. Mainstream media sources attested that the site was the means by which the girls built and maintained their friendship, and that it was utilised to plan the suicides.

The evidence cited was cryptic, vaguely-relevant messages and poetry which gave “clues” as to the girls’ mental states and intentions, such as “Let Steph n me b free,” and “it feels like it always rains” (“Tragic last words of MySpace suicide girls”, The Sydney Morning Herald, April 24, 2007).

Even ignoring that the girls’ friendship occurred primarily offline (they were schoolmates), there is no record of the girls using MySpace to plan their deaths, unless morbid poetry and vague messages can be viewed as ironclad evidence to the contrary.

Though some have interpreted what the girls posted on the site to be, retrospectively, a glimpse into the mindsets of two suicidal teenagers, the fact is teenagers have expressed themselves in such a way for years - all that has changed is the medium. The printed journal has been supplanted by its online equivalent. And though it can conceivably be considered a warning sign, not every teenager who writes about depression is suicidal or even depressed at all.

According to the latest figures available from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), more than 2,000 Australians commit suicide per year - far too many for all of them to be big news. Two added ingredients (the misunderstood subculture du jour and a popular social networking site) sexed up reports of one particular suicide pact, turning it into the story of the week.

This is not to suggest that the disappearance and suicide of two teenage girls is not newsworthy - it’s much more than that. However, tackily branding the teenagers the “MySpace suicide girls” and distorting the role both the website and the emo subculture had in the girls’ deaths is, quite frankly, a despicable way of reporting it.

With all the attention devoted to the peripherals, focus was all but completely diverted from reasonable discussion of what factors actually were responsible for two young girls losing the will to live.

Many stories mentioned, at least in passing, that emo kids are often antagonised or vilified by other subcultures, or by the mainstream. But it is the issue of antagonism - that the two girls were constantly the targets of bullying - that was most bizarrely overlooked by the majority of the mainstream media in any attempts to explain why the girls killed themselves.

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.