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Violence in the media not a cause of behavior
Positive effects of violent media
Negative effects of violent media on children
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Violent media directed at adolescents typically has an unpleasant reputation because it is considered to be detrimental to a child’s overall environment and behavior, specifically comic books and video games. There are numerous of articles being published today linking children who consume violent media to obesity, aggressiveness, and sociopathic behavior. The question posed today is: Could there be a possibility that children will have some benefits consuming violent media? Gerard Jones, author of the article “Violent Media is Good for Kids”, advocates for children to be presented with the opportunity to indulge in violent media. Jones states that violent media helps children immerse themselves into feeling complex emotions such as anger and …show more content…
He felt powerless, shy, and miserable because he could not fit in with the crowd of boys due to his timid nature. It was not until he was allowed to read the Incredible Hulk comic book did he begin to change completely. He started to become completely obsessed with comic books and even decided to pursue writing stories as his choice of career because of this. He argues that the comic books made him feel alive compared to when it was hidden out of sight from him because of his parent’s conservative views. Jones says that if he never read comic books, he would have never gained the courage to go out and make friends, and that it had given him the feeling of empowerment. He discusses that he is not the only child to experience this and even says, “I kept seeing the same story: people pulling themselves out of emotional traps by immersing themselves in violent stories” (63). It is very common for parents wanting to shield their children away from violent media, especially if they have a set belief that children who play video games and read comic books tends to be more irrational, aggressive, and unstable. However, children who do not have access to it tends to feel left out from their community and lack confidence. So when they are able to immerse themselves into the violent stories, they …show more content…
I was a victim of childhood bullying because of my ethnicity. I was isolated from third grade to fifth grade because I did not know how to stand up for myself or understand how to make friends. Yet when my parents gave me Batman comic books and allowed me to play video games like Street Fighter, I felt powerful. I was allowed to feel courageous for once and believed that I could be strong despite being so small and ordinary. However, my parents did not supervise me or manage how much I could read or play games, so I took it too far one day. In fifth grade, I had finally threatened my bullies to leave me alone or I would stab them with a pocket knife, strongly thinking that this threat would end all of my problems. I had thought I would not receive any consequences like Batman when he defeats a villain. Yet in the end, I got expelled from school because I could have seriously hurt someone. Jones does not mention the negative affects of what too much violent media can cause children in his article. He should have mentioned that parents needs to help children be able to manage and express their emotions with the use of violent media to avoid any destructive behavior. KD Browne and C Hamilton-Giachritsis, authors of the article “The Influence of Violent Media on Children and Adolescents: A Public Health Approach”, explains that the “behavior of parents
It has been happened frequently in today’s society that parents and teachers try to keep children away from violent media. Children are taught that violent is not right and dangerous. In the article, “Violent Media Is Good for Kids”, Gerard Jones asserts that allowing children to violent media instead of banned it can bring great benefit to children during their growing stage. By watching violent media, children learn to overcome fear, control the rage and prove the real self from the superheroes in the story. Jones believes that violent entertainment can assistance children to fulfill emotional and development need. In my opinion, Jones develops a persuasive argument because of his strong emotions, considerable evidences and reasonable assumptions.
Granted, Jones seems to use only one source for his article, that does not necessarily mean he does not state any evidence or logos. This whole article is Jones’s evidence and the source is himself, because the article is a story of the author’s involvement with violent media. Jones had no need to research information when he had all the knowledge on the topic, by this time, from his own life. Jones starts by recalling events as a child, where his parents did not wish for him to be exposed to the violence in the 1960s and secluded him from pop culture (Jones para. 1). He is giving readers background information, that eventually builds up into how he knows so much on the topic. As a child, he yearned for anything to get him out of all his disbelief and sorrow when he was trapped in a small school, which seemed unusual for him (Jones para. 1). He uses his childhood latter on in life, as logos to support his claims. The statements made do provide evidence that he is correct to believe that a lack of violent media could deprive a young child. Later on in his childhood, he recalls, “The character who caught me, and freed me, was the Hulk” (Jones para. 4). This provides logical evidence that proves that once he had been exposed to a moderate amount of violence, he was
In “Violent Media is Good for Kids” Gerard Jones introduces us to his fearful and lonesome childhood. He lived in a world where he was taught to be the violence fearing, and passive boy his parents wanted him to be. But, when one of his mother’s students gave him a Marvel comic book, his fearfulness was transformed into inspiration. He found a way to escape these discouraging feelings through the “stifled rage and desire for power” (Jones 285) that he had newly found. The popular comic book hero “The Hulk” freed him from his passive and lonely persona. Throughout the article he cites his testimonies and the testimonies of others as examples; and shows how they used violence as a positive realm for “overcoming powerlessness.” (Jones 287) Ultimately, Jones is trying to convey the message that violent media can provide kids with psychological tools for coping with the problems that they face as they grow. Although there are slight hints of biased evidence, “Violent Media is Good for Kids” should be considered for the top prize for persuasive essays.
In the 40s, comic books had a large audience. There would have been at least a dozen people in your class who read comics, claims Chabon. A few years later in the 70s, there would have been less than a dozen but more than one or two people who read comics. Now, it is hard to find more than a few people that you know who actually read comics. If you read comics today, you are considered unique. Children are loosing interest in everything that stimulates the mind in a positive way. Chabon claims that the obvious decline in interest in comic books should make authors want to take initiative and fix the
In “Violent Media Is Good for Kids,” Gerard Jones states that violence is good for children. Even with all the bad things people have said about the media and the effect of violence on kids, it has helped many kids reveal their feelings and their fears. In Jones article, he uses his own experience as an example of himself when he was a kid. Also, he uses his son and other kids experience as an example. Most kids use their imagination to pretend to be a protagonist they like. From reading this article it has helped me understand more that not all media violence are harmful for children. Violent media have helped kids express their feelings in a good way. With my own experience as a kid, I can relate to Jones experience. In his essay he uses diction, tone, organization and examples.
There are a lot of people who either wonder or believe that violent media is bad for people and mostly children. Not all violent media is bad. Sometimes when people have a stressful day they will play video games to let off steam. A few people like watching horror movies because of the thrill of being scared. But if you’re a kid with no friends or you are alone most of the time, you might enjoy comic books. They are filled with action and heroes. Doing any of these can give off a sense of adventure, thrill, and excitement. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to go off and start hurting people because of it. There is a lot of evidence that states the media affects viewers by encouraging violent behavior and weakening their creative ability. The question is whether the media is truly the problem, or is it the parental role that is the problem.
There are more factors to whether this is true or not than a child not being afraid to climb a tree after reading Tarzan books. Jones did not give enough arguments or facts in his article to make me feel violent entertainment is good for kids. He ends his article stating “When we try to protect our children from their own feelings and fantasies, we shelter them not against violence but against power and selfhood.” Children do not have to be kept away from all ‘creative violence”, however adults should have discussions with their children about how they feel about what they are seeing or reading. It is about protecting children from taking the wrong meaning from it. Jones may be right in saying some of the traits and feelings children get from messages in these movies or comic books will help them to be better, however the amount and type of violent entertainment allowed should be
As violence becomes more common place in todays society, instead people search for something to blame. Experts tend to employ violent video games a scapegoat. They believe that kids that play video games with glorified violence are likely to be violent in real life. Author Gerard Jones disagrees with these ideas and composes a convincing argument against it in his article "Violent Media is Good for Kids." (Jones, 1) I believe this article is written well, considering it makes important points and uses his life experiences to tell us about it. In his thesis, it says that comic books which critics assume are immature and gloried violence actually teach pacifism and tolerance. Jones goes on to say that humans must learn to how to handle
Sara Sharif English 112 Megan Bushar 03/26/14 Violent Media is Good for Kids Gerard Jones' essay, "Violent Media is Good for Kids," has an epic tone that is straight out of the comic books that he writes. It is a passionate, well-written appeal to pathos that should be very effective at grabbing the attention of his readers. In the course of developing this appeal, he also includes appeals to both logos and pathos, making his argument something more than a simple tug on the heartstrings. Though not without its problems, this essay presents a strong argument in favor of the benefits of violent media such as comic books. Recent events have driven the debate over violence into the center of the national attention once again.
Violent media has been proven to cause a child to become aggressive. Media such as video games, television and internet all contain violence that is shown to the public for entertainment. Younger children have cartoons on television that contain explosions and they look up to these animations wishing they can duplicate the cartoons actions. Older children have a tendency to want to play video games and most of these are full of violent media. The most popular games are fighting and shooting games. These older children might have siblings that want to be just like their older brother or sister and begin to have a negative impact caused by the type of media they watch. The internet contains unlimited data,
In our society, certain ideals are held in high regard. Individuals relentlessly pursue these ideals to achieve a perceived perfection. These principles are often depicted in media that further glorifies and establishes a desire to pursue these paragons. In a medium such as comic books, however, these standards and perceptions are heavily distorted by the characterizations and settings. Particularly, the superhero genre absorbs the ideals we strive towards and regurgitates them in an extreme and unrealistic manner. The superhero genre is often reflective of societal changes in ideas and morals. These ideals are then molded into misleading representations that influence the behaviors of viewers. Comic books absorb elements of our society and transform them. For example, as the enemies of America change, so do the enemies of our superheroes. However, the enemies are transformed into supervillains that are extremely dark and villainous. Such characterizations cloud people’s understanding of real threats and enemies affecting our society. Also, to cater to the value that American society places on intelligence, attractiveness, and physical strength, comic books create characters that epitomize these characteristics. Though the represent society’s ideals, these characters manipulate the ideas and convey them back to the audience in an unrecognizable manner. In developing such distorted representations, the superhero genre affects human behavior and perceptions of these ideals.
Teperman, Jean. "Toxic Lessons What Do Children Learn from Media Violence?" Children's Advocate newsmagazine. Online. www.4chilren.org/news/1-97toxl.htm. Accessed October 23, 2001.
Furthermore, television violence causes aggressive behavior in children. Many people believe that children who watch violent television programs exhibit more aggressive behavior than that exhibited by children who do not (Kinnear 23). According to the results of many studies and reports, violence on television can lead to aggressive behavior in children (Langone 50). Also, when television was introduced into a community of children for the first time, researchers observed a rise in the level of physical and verbal aggression among these children (Langone 51). The more television violence viewed by a child, the more aggressive the child is (“Children” 1).
With the explosion of technology today, access to the media is at your fingertips, anytime, anywhere, and almost 24/7. Video games, movies, cartoons, daily news, websites, music videos, and even in commercials, violence is everywhere, and it becomes harder and harder to avoid. Violence in the media has been increasing and reaching dangerous proportions. According to Report of the Media Violence Commission, the effects are remarkably consistent regardless of type of medium, age, gender, or where the person lives in the world (336). Many studies and researches reveal the empirical evidence that links violence in movies and television shows to aggressive behavior in children, teenagers, and adults. Increasing aggressive behavior, desensitization to violence, and fear are three types of negative effects contributed to by violence in movies and television shows. The article, “The Influence of Media Violence on Youth” emphasizes that violent television shows, films, and music reveal unequivocal evidence that media violence increases the likelihood aggressive and violent behavior in both immediately, and in the long term (Anderson, Craig A., 81). Violence now has gone into the mainstream. The Hunger Games, one of the top grossing films in 2013 replete with blood, gore and violence. The Walking Dead was once voted highest-rated entertainment program on TV with horrific violent scenes, killing from stabbing into the heads, bloody corpses, and disturbing, haunting images shown in most of the scenes. CBS’ Criminal Minds is television show with series of scary scenarios showing the violent murders of psychopath people. Worst of all, Silence of the Lambs deals with a psychopath who ...
Are video games a negative or positive influence on children’s behavior and actions? Several studies have been pointing out that exposure to violence on television, movies, video games, cell phones and the Internet increases the risk of violent behavior in the viewer, like to grow in an environment filled with real violence increases the risk of violent behavior. Plentiful of the research on current media have focused on the violence spread by TV for experts in developmental psychology and John Murray of Kansas State University, United States, it is difficult to conclude otherwise than that violence on television has increased levels of violence and aggression in the society, and that video games have an effect even more powerful. Violent video games are more distress, than the films of the same sign and that the images of violence shown on television because they are interactive, because they use a technology environment that allows the user total immersion in the situation, while producing new objects cultural. The reason is that video games are not limited to violence to show a passive spectator, but require the person to connect with the character and act for him, while violence in film and television images whose exposure is limited only to visual perception. The video game violence has long-term real effects. Children exposed to high levels of violent entertainment can become more aggressive and develop a tremendous face the suffering of others, also increases the likelihood they interact and respond to violence in their social environment. In violent video games as success is clearly defined as killing or take, and failure as die or loses the good and evil as the wicked: they, different from us, it is just revenged, I mate,...