Abstract:

The developments of communication technology, nowadays, subject individuals excessively to digital media content all while unconsciously exposing them to the threats of the virtual world. Digital communication technologies, which are used especially by children and adolescents for education, fun, passing time, and communicating, contain a number of threats. While negative behavior on the Internet environment such cybercrime, cyber bullying, trolling, hacking are increasing, the effect of hazardous challenge videos and digital games on children and teenagers has reached a concerning degree. Especially digital games not only addict kids but also distort their perception of reality and even lead them to life-threatening behavior. The subject of this study is an online game, called 'blue whale', which makes children and teenagers harm their bodies and even commit suicide. The content about this game, also known as challenge or death game, takes place in the Turkish media containing suicide news, after in the media of Russia, India, Germany etc. In this study, which is analyzed with quantitative content analysis, it is aimed to find out how the media frame the news about blue whale and how the media reconstruct the truth. In the scope of the study, while 82 news and 8 articles of national newspapers published between 1st of September 2017 and 31st of March 2018 are analyzed with linguistic frame and content frame, it is set forth how the subject is the represented in the media. While the linguistic frame of 72.2% of the content used moral panic, it is found that the 60% of the content is constructed by episodic frame This report is assessed to be an important source for research areas on children and teenagers' actions with digital games

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