Independent University, Bangladesh

Subject: Report for the awareness campaign

Title: Awareness campaign against cyberbullying: an initiative on the

campus of Independent University, Bangladesh
Submitted to:

Dr Kazi Mahmudur Rahman

Associate Professor & Head of the Department

Department of Social Sciences & Humanities

Independent University, Bangladesh

Submitted by:

Iftekharul Islam 2130901

Nahil Iqbal 2130899
Arup Banerjee 2222481
Md Zafar Alam Bhuiyan 2130906

DST 633: Communications for Development (C4D)

Summer Semester, 2022

Masters in Development Studies (MDS)

Independent University, Bangladesh
Dhaka, August 23, 2022

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 Preface
This awareness campaign will be administered at the campus of IUB to the students to reduce
cyberbullying that has been identified in the baseline survey by the same group conducted on
August 05-09, 2022. In the Baseline survey, we found that there are 50% of students had
been under attack by cyberbullying. Our target is to reduce it to 20% through the awareness
campaign. The awareness will be administered through verbal communication as well as
visual tools and techniques.

This proposal has the activities and the information that will be required in the campaign that
will be taken place by the team in from August 25, 2022, to February 25, 2023. We are
deeply indebted for the valued time and guidance to our Faculty Member, Associate
Professor, and Head of the Department of Masters in Development Studies (MDS), Dr.
Mahmudur Rahman. We do hope our mentor will continue his kind support in our next
journey as well.

Sincerely,

Awareness Campaign Team against cyberbullying

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 Summary
Cyberbullying is a vital issue in the world as well as in our country Bangladesh. Bullying is
not merely new harassment, however, that is evidenced in the Holy Bible. An awareness
campaign against cyberbullying will be administered by the team to reduce the percentage
and attitude of cyberbullying among the campus students of Independent University,
Bangladesh. Baseline research has been conducted from August 5 to 9, 2022 among 30 (15
male and 15 female) students of the university where 50 % of the students informed that they
had experienced cyberbullying. Objectives have been set to reduce cyberbullying to 20% by
the campaign with creative tools and techniques.

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 Table of Content
Content Page No Contributor
1. Introduction 2
Verbal Bullying 4 It’s group work and all the
Visual Bullying 5 participants have taken part in
the design, data collection, and
2. Situation Analysis 5 development of the proposal.
2.1. Global Situation 5
2.2. National Situation 6
2.2.a. Concept of Cyberbullying 6
2.2.b. Law Against Cyberbullying 7
2.2.c. Why Cyberbullying is a problem? 7
d. Baseline Research 10
i. Objectives 10
ii. Methods 10
iii. Sampling 10
iv. Timeframe 10
v. Findings 10
3. Audience Analysis 12
3.1. Primary Audience 12
3.2. Secondary Audience 12
3.3. Tertiary Audience 12
4.0. Audience Behaviour 13
5.1. Goals 13
5.2. Objectives (SMART) 13
6.0. Message 14
7.0.Communications Channels 15
8.0.Communication Strategy 17
9.0 Communication tools 19
10. Monitoring and Evaluation 22
11. Budget 23
12. Annex 24

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Awareness campaign against cyberbullying: an initiative on the campus of Independent
University, Bangladesh ( IUB)

1. Introduction: Cyberbullying is an act of bullying tarnishing others’ image, and social

status using online platforms through electronic communication in which people share
negative, harmful activities or relative content intending to abuse, harassment, threaten,
humiliate or embarrass anyone. Day by day cyberbullying is increasing gradually as its types
are gathering at the same time. Modern tools and techniques are giving their serious
proliferation among people who are fond of them to increase their notoriety. In much
research, it is evidenced that, socioeconomic conditions, lack of moral education in the
family, and poor cultural practices are leading to cyberbullying (Star, 2020).

Generally, bullying may be categorized into two types verbal and visual as follows. In social
media, both are in practice separately and simultaneously which are dependent on the skills
of the bullying agent (persecutor), his preferences, and available resources.

1.1.Verbal Bullying1

 Chattering about someone and spreading lies about them

 Using abusive language and offensive name-calling
 Verbal attacks such as arguing with someone using threatening, discriminatory, or
demeaning words
 Inappropriate jokes, remarks, teasing, or asking sexually related questions
 Asking someone at work/institutions to go out with you, unwelcome sexual advances,
and sexual favors
 Inquisitive about the sexual preference or history of a colleague at the workplace
 Remarking negatively about a person’s clothing, body, or personal behavior
 Creation of inappropriate sounds such as kissing sounds, whistling, or smacking lips
 Transferring someone's sexual emails, notes, or letters
Bullying someone in front of people, like an employer shouting and yelling at an employee
over a poor recital. Though it is illegal, the victim can talk to the abuser and explain how the
words make them uncomfortable.

1. 2. Visual Bullying
1
https://www.easyllama.com/definitions/visual-physical-verbal-harassment

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Visual Bullying is a situation where the individual exposes themselves to another person
without the victim's consent, and the act affects their work performance or attitude. Examples
of visual harassment include:

 Sending sexual images or videos to another person. For instance, sending unsolicited
pornographic videos to another person through a social website
 Exposing of private parts
 Unwelcome gestures towards another person
 Staring at someone else’s body offensively and making the person feel uncomfortable
 Placing a poster with information related to sexual behaviours
 Exposing someone else’s private pictures or images without their consent

Displaying abusive or inappropriate messages or content from a website, book, or magazine

In Bangladesh, the rate of cyberbullying is high (Sraboni, 2021). Most of the sufferers (80%)
are women and out of them, 64 % are from the city areas.

Bullying is not a new phenomenon in history. The Holy Bible shows evidence of bullying of
Christian people such as the rivalry between Joseph and his brother, David, and Goliath and
the God Samaritan (Allanson, 2015). In the 18th century peer to peer harassment was
common in society (llanes, 2012). However, bullying was in different dimensions.

A campaign will be administered on the campus of Independent University, Bangladesh to

reduce cyberbullying by placing banners, postering, and leaflet distribution among the
university's students, faculty members, and staffers.

2. Situation Analysis:

2. 1. Global Situation: Worldwide cyberbullying is a crime. According to a report by Ogi

Djuraskovic2 cyberbullying is mainly made by the stronger people to attack the victims'
personalities to make them weak and enjoy its murky fun. In the present global context,
22.5% of cyberbullying is by mean comments, 35% by jeering, 12.1% by comments on
sexual harassment, 20.1% by humour, and 22.5% by other issues.

2
Cyberbullying Statistics, Facts, and Trends (2022) with Charts: https://firstsiteguide.com/cyberbullying-stats/

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2.2. National Situation: Citing a police report Dr. Benojir Ahmed informed that 68% of the
total population has experienced cyberbullying and 73% of them are women who have
complaints to the police. But the actual figure is higher (Star, 2020).

Cyberbulling in the world

43 22.5

35

20.1 12.1

Mean Comments Jeering Sexual Harassment Humour Others

Cyberbullying in Bangladesh
27

73

Women Men

Figure 1: Cyberbullying in the world

Figure 2: Cyberbullying in Bangladesh (Source: Daily Star, November 17, 2020)

The awareness campaign is on the IUB campus, (one of the leading private universities in the
country) to reduce cyber harassment among the students and to motivate them to continue
their voice against cyberbullying in the future.

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2.2.a. Concepts of Cyberbullying: Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place over digital
devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets. Cyberbullying can occur through SMS, Text,
and apps, or online in social media, forums, or gaming where people can view, participate in,
or share content.

According to UNICEF (2022), Cyberbullying is bullying with the use of digital technologies.
It can take place on social media, messaging platforms, gaming platforms, and mobile
phones. It is repeated behavior, aimed at scaring, angering, or shaming those who are
targeted.

It includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about
someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else
causing embarrassment or humiliation. Some cyberbullying crosses the line into unlawful or
criminal behavior.

2.2.b. Law Against Cyberbullying: The laws against cyberbullying that can be availed by
victims in Bangladesh embrace the Information and Communication Technology Act, 2006
(ICT Act); the Pornography Control Act, 2012 (PC Act); and the Digital Security Act, 2018
(DS Act). However, Section 63 of the ICT Act safeguards punishment for the revelation of
concealment and privacy with captivity or with a fine, or both. Section 24 of the DS Act
penalizes identity fraud and provides sanctions for it whereas section 25 protects a person
from the transmission or publication of offensive, false, or threatening information regarding
them through any digital medium. Section 29 of the DS Act protects a victim against
defamation. Finally, section 8 of the PC Act has made the possession, distribution, or use of
any sort of pornographic material illegal. It has also included sanctions for blackmailing
using such materials and distributing them using the internet. With the proper implementation
of all these laws, it is possible to ensure the safety of the people accessing the digital
platforms. Towards realizing our dream of 'Digital Bangladesh', it is necessary to build safe
cyberspace for everyone accessing it.

Unfortunately, many victims are not aware of the help available in these cases. The law
enforcement agencies have freshly commenced several initiatives to challenge such offenses
and have launched a hotline where victims can complain using the profile link or screenshots
of the offender. Legal aid organizations like Ain o Shalish Kendra (ASK), Bangladesh Legal
Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association

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(BNWLA), etc. also assist. A specialized branch of the police called the Police Cyber
Support for women also provides the necessary advice and legal assistance.

2.2.c. Why Cyberbullying is a problem?

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Figure: Impact dimension of Cyberbullying on one’s life
(Adapted from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01511/full, Dated: 13.08.2022)
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Cyberbullying creates mental harassment or mental pressure on the victims that make him
/her ignorant of rights, less- esteemed, and out of dignity in society. It is enough to make a
person lose his/her confidence in life and be out- tracked from leading a normal life
(Allanson, 2015).

2.2.d. Baseline Research

i. Objectives: To find out the existing situation of cyberbullying among the students of
IUB
ii. Methods: By a survey with a close-ended questionnaire that has been added in the
annex of the proposal
iii. Sampling: We have surveyed 30 students at the IUB campus (15 males and 15
females).
iv. Timeframe: We have conducted the research total of 5 days where 1 day for the rapid
survey, 2 days for the interviews, and 1 day for the analysis.

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

Concept Development

Questionnaire
Development

Interview of the male

students

Interview of the male

students

Findings & Reporting

v. Findings of the baseline research: We have surveyed with a closed-ended structures

questionnaire among 30 students at the campus of the independence University Bangladesh
and found that 50% of the female have been attacked under cyberbullying whereas for males

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 it is 40%. Interestingly, according to their response, cyberbullying is not merely done by
males to females; the percentage is the same (70%) for one to the opposite sex. On the other,
70% of females were bullied by males and 30% by females. Only 30% of female students
know where to complain about cyberbullying, in the case of males it is 40%. Cyberbullying is
a punishable offense known by 40% of females and 80% of males. However, only 10% of the
female students complained to the university authority and in the case of male students, it is
0%.

Cyber bulling in the IUB Cam pus

90 Experienced cyberbulling
Bullying by male
Bullying by Female
complain place known 80
80 Cyberbullying is a punishable offence according to our national law known?
complained to the university authority

70 70
70

60

50
50
Percentage

40 40 40
40

30 30
30
30

20

10
10

0
Female Male 0

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 Source: Baseline Research

3. Audience Analysis:
3.1. Primary Audience: Our Primary audience is as below:
1. Male Students of Most of the male students are Internet users. From our baseline
IUB survey, we found that 80% of the male students have been under
the attack of cyberbullying.
2. Female Students of In our baseline survey, we found, that 90% of the female students
IUB have been under the attack of cyberbullying

3.2. In the campaign our secondary audiences are

1 Mothers
2. Fathers
3 Faculty
Members
4 Friends
5 Relatives
6 Neighbors
3.3. Tertiary audiences:
1 Vice Chancellor VC of the university can play a significant role as s/he is the
of the university
2 Proctorial Body
Mothers have a significant role in our society. In the case of
cyberbullying harassment, the mother plays a significant role by
giving moral support by motivating the female child, and in the
case of male students, they further can motivate their boys to
respect the female and not to harass them by any means.
In most cases, the father-daughter relationship is closer in society.
Father can uplift the mental strength of his girl through special
care like emotional support. A father also can teach moral lessons
to his boy, not to harass girls/women.
Teachers are always a big shelter for the students. They can help
the victims and can motivate the male students, not harass
females.
Friends can play a vital role in the case motivation. A bullied
student can take shelter from his/her friends.
Close relatives are a key factor in human life and they can take a
vital part to reduce the grievances of a student.
Neighbours can also be a good secondary audience who can take
part to reduce the upset mind of an assaulted person/student.
academic and administrative head of the same.
The proctorial body can ensure discipline and a healthy
environment by enacting rules against cyberbullying.

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 3 Psychiatrist Psychotherapists/Social counsellors can play a significant role in
cyberbullying on campus.
4 Social Workers Social workers and celebrities can take part in the awareness
campaign for mass response and motivation against cyberbullying.

4.0. Audience Behaviour: For audience Behaviour analysis, we have conducted a KAP
study for the primary audience (Students) and the result is as below:

K Knowledge From the survey, we will find the students percentage who know where and
how to make the complaints.
A Attitude Percentage of the students who have or have no tendency to make the
complaints
P Practice Percentage of the students who made the complaint in verbal /written form
5.Goals & Objectives:

5.1. Goal: The Students of IUB will know the negative impact of cyberbullying and the
way of taking action against it.

5.2. Objectives:

S-Specific This awareness campaign against cyberbullying will be

administered at the IUB Campus.
M-Measurable Cyberbullying will be reduced to below 30% from 50% (That we
have found in the baseline survey) of the existing through our
campaign
A-Achievable We think it is achievable through proper communication and
motivation though there are many challenges like lacking time,
resources, and social constraints of the respondents (like not
sharing the information considering it's their privacy).
R-Realistic We can seek help from the administration, (Registrar of the
University) Discipline Committee, HOD, Proctorial Body of the
University) for resources and develop contributory funds by
ourselves, if necessary.
T-Timeline We will continue the campaign from August 25, 2022- February
25, 2023

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6.0 Message:

Phases of Process of developing messages

developing message

Phase 01: Draft At first, we consulted amongst ourselves. Then we came up with the
message message “Say no to cyber harassment.” Then we shared the drafted
development message with our friends.

Phase 02: Draft Due to the time constraint, we could not go for pre-testing.
message revision However, we shared the drafted message with our peers to see if
they could relate to it. We also consulted a faculty of IUB and then
we revised the draft message to “Stand up to cyber harassment.”

Phase 03: Final After much thought, we finalized “Stand up against cyber
message harassment” as our core message of the awareness campaign.
development

Core message: Stop Cyberbullying

Sub message:

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7. Communication Channels

Channel Primary Secondary Audience Tertiary Audience

Audience
PSA To be aware To create awareness To create awareness about the
students, about the theme. theme.
influence and
insist on the
theme.
Poster 1 To be aware of To create awareness To create awareness about the
female students, about the theme. theme.
influence, insist
on the theme,
and inform about
SAO helpline.
Poster 2 To be aware To create awareness To insist them to promote this
students, about theme. issue.
influence and
insist theme.
Poster 3 To aware To create awareness To insist them to promote this
students, about theme. issue.
influence and
insist on theme.
X-banner To influence and To create awareness To influence and insist theme.
insist theme. about theme.
Banner for To influence and To create awareness To influence and insist theme.
Rally insist on theme. about theme.
Rally To increase To create awareness To create awareness, influence
awareness. about theme. and insist theme.
T-shirt To influence and To aware theme and To aware theme and inform.
insist them. inform.
Sticker To aware female To create awareness
students,

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 influence, insist about theme.
theme and
inform about
SAO helpline.
Wrist Band To influence and To aware theme and To aware theme and inform.
insist theme. inform.
Pen To insist theme. To influence and To influence and insist theme so
insist theme so that that they are interested to
they are interested to promote this issue.
promote this issue.
Leaflet To aware female To create awareness To insist them to promote this
students, about theme. issue.
influence and
insist theme.
Seminar To aware To create awareness, To influence and insist on theme.
students of the influence, and insist
issue, to inform on the theme.
them on how to
protect
themselves
Facebook To be aware of To create awareness To influence and insist on the
students, about the theme. theme.
influence and
insist on the
theme.

8. Communication Strategy: Planning for a communication method with a blend of multiple

communication tools is an absolute necessity. The success of any camping heavily depends
on the way messages are delivered to the audience. There can be several different ways in

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which communication tools can be used to distribute the message of a campaign to the
audience. It will maximize the amount of exposure a campaign gets and also increases the
possibility of the messages being delivered to the target audience of this campaign.

Material Rational Place Intended Result

X Banner To inform primary and It will be used for indoor It can reach the primary and
secondary audiences display in the IUB Lobby, secondary audiences easily.
about the seminar event outside of the Campus A
entitled “Responsible auditorium, inside the
Online Behavior” auditorium as well as
during the Fall ’2022 shared in Facebook.
Semester.
Rally To strengthen the issue Participant students, The event will help to create
of cyber harassment in faculties, and awareness and inform the
the minds of primary administration primary, secondary, and
audiences through the representatives will be tertiary audiences.
celebration of the provided with t-shirts.
special day against Non-participant students
cyberbullying will be informed about the
campaign. issue through the banner.
T-shirt It will help us to make We will provide t-shirts to The t-shirts will draw the
our campaign. IUB students, faculties and attention of bystanders and
administration help to raise awareness.
representatives
participating in the rally
organized on the occasion
of International Women’s
Day 2023.
Cap It’s a fashionable good Will be distributed among The campaign will be
and a good the students, faculty and speeded successfully
communicative item staffs
for all ages
Sticker To introduce the issue The stickers will be This will create awareness
of cyber harassment to distributed among the among the primary and
all audiences and students as well as placed secondary audiences.
inform the details of on classroom doors,
the helpline. faculty floors, canteens,

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 library, computer
laboratories, and study
rooms.
Poster 1 To introduce the issue The posters will be
of cyber harassment to distributed in prominent
all audiences. places of the IUB campus,
including notice boards, in
front of canteens, library,
computer laboratories, and
study rooms. Besides, the
poster will also be shared
in Facebook.
Poster 2 To alert all audiences The posters will be
as well as create distributed in prominent
awareness among places of IUB campus
secondary and tertiary including notice boards, in
audiences front of canteens, library,
computer laboratories,
study rooms,
Poster 3 To inform the primary The posters will be
audience about steps to distributed in prominent
take if they face cyber places on IUB campus
harassment as well as including notice boards, in
create awareness front of canteens, libraries,
among secondary and computer laboratories,
tertiary audiences. study rooms,
9. Communication Tools
Sl No. Name of the tool Picture
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We are expecting the posters
to be seen by all students of
IUB along with faculty,
administration, male students
and some portion through
distribution in IUB.
We think that the poster will
be seen by all
students/faculty and others in
the IUB administration. A
comprehensive awareness
will come out.
We are expecting the posters
to be seen by all students of
IUB along with faculty,
administration, male students
and some portion through
distribution in IUB.
 1 X Banner

2 Poster 1

3 Poster 2

4 Poster 3

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 5 Leaflet

6 Rally Banner

7 Tee- Shirt

8 Cap

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 9 Bag

10 Folder

11 Sticker

12 Diary

13 Pen

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 14 Facebook Page

10. Monitoring and Evaluation: Assessment of the effectiveness of the campaign will be
done by keeping a record of what we have achieved. To do so, we will be monitoring the
activities. Monitoring of the campaign will be conducted each semester. `after the end of the
campaign a comprehensive evaluation will be conducted. We will be conducting surveys to
get knowledge of the awareness among people during the campaign and after it finishes. We
will analyze the surveys and compare them to each other to determine whether any progress
has been made.

11. Budget:

Channel Unit price ( BDT) Quantity Total ( BDT)

X Banner 300 5 1500
Poster 10 100 1000
Leaflet 5 1000 5000

Rally Banner 500 3 1500

Tee-Shirt 100 100 10000
Cap 50 100 5000
Bag 30 200 6000
Folder 20 200 4000
Sticker 10 500 5000

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Pen 10 500 5000
Facebook Page 1000 ( 2 times) 2000
( Boosting)
Others Lump sum 5000
Total 51000

Annex:

Questionnaire of the Baseline survey for the awareness campaign of cyberbullying at

the IUB Campus
Dear Friends
Please answer the questions to help our survey about cyberbullying on the IUB campus which
will be used only for academic purposes. We will not disclose particular information about
your identity anywhere in the future.
Name of the Student: (Optional)
ID: (Optional)
Dept:
Gender: Male/Female
Thank you very much

Sl. No Questions Answer

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 1 Have you ever been bullied by Yes No
social media
2 By which gender you have been Male Female
bullied on social media?
3 Do you know where and how to Yes No
complain at the university?
4 Have you ever complained to the Yes No
university authority?
5 Have you ever complained to the Yes
police/Law and order agencies?

Thank you very much

Signature:

Date:

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