With researching my questions, I wanted to see what changes from the original content were made to better fit the changing demographic audiences. To do this, as a primary resource, I looked at the visual transition that took place from the original comic book to the cartoon tv and movie adaptions. I also researched through my secondary sources to try and understand the commercial motives behind these changes that make the Ninja Turtle franchise a success. I also wanted to better understand how the public, more specifically, the franchise's audience, have perceived it and how those perceptions might have changed along with it. As Marsha Kinder discusses in her book, Playing with Power in Movies, Television, and Video Games, the gravity of …show more content…
An article from the LA Times on August 27th, 1990 talks about the increased popularity of the Ninja Turtles and its effect on a newer, younger audience.1 The article also contains interviews with parents and teachers from both sides of the issue who explain the effects the show has had on their kids and their decided policy's regarding "turtle" play. The US school system wasn't alone in this banning of ninja turtle-related activities similar reports can also be found elsewhere in the world. The New York Times, though a US-based newspaper, reported less than two weeks before on similar bans that swept through Australian primary schools.2 While schools in the US and Australia banned memorabilia, in the UK the Ninja Turtles experienced censorship and were forced to change the "ninja" to "heroes" in their name.3 These articles and their documentation of public perceptions of the franchise are helpful in following how the franchise was perceived and the effectiveness of the changes they made to the canonical source
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.
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.
Animals and objects often function as a stand in for human kind, especially in literature. Authors’ repeatedly use them to draw reference and explain different characteristics, emotion, and situations of inhumanity. In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck used the turtle to illiterate the journey of a lot of people during the 1930’s to 1940’s. During the period the dust bowl, a series of relentless wind storms and drought, was caused by improper methods of farming that would help prevent erosion. Families were compelled to leave their farms to find work because of the drought and dust storms had left many homeless. Many people experienced the pain of their mortgages foreclosed by banks. Families would pack up the automobiles and head across the country. As the automobile transformed into a more accessible form of transportation it became a saving grace for many of the agricultural farm workers in search a new beginning. The turtle and the automobile both literally and figuratively crossed paths and had a small but somewhat significant impact on each other.
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
... sources of media accelerating the world’s decline into aggressive stupidity. Does a seven year old child really need a game about blowing the heads off of rebel soldiers to make them happy? Is it going to help them relate to the other seven year olds in their class at school, or help them learn how to take a math test? No. Fact is, the damage of exposing developing children to violence at early ages outweighs the advantage of giving them easy entertainment. If anything, it makes one wonder what the video game world will have disintegrated to in ten years if this is what the kids are playing now.
What ever happened to the simple games like Mario Kart 64, Baseball, Football and Sonic the Hedgehog? In the book The Sociology of War and Violence the author states, “Our popular culture, novel, history textbooks, mass media, art, games, children’s toys and many other everyday outlets are saturated with images and instruments of violence” (Malesevic). There has been a huge rise in violence in the media culture today. Television shows, movies, video games, etc. have all become more violent today than they have ever been in the past. Kids used to play these simple games and were fine with that, but now they only care about them if they have violence, killing and destruction. Today’s video games are being created to be based around nothing but
One of my favorite shows growing up was Tom and Jerry. Every time Tom got hit by a pan, crushed by a bowling ball, or burned on a stove, I couldn’t help but laugh, never thinking about the violence behind Jerry’s actions. Shows like Tom and Jerry emphasize humor, one of America’s most valued virtues, but also expose children to aggression at a young age. This slapstick comedy has long been a part of children’s entertainment and society in general. Popular culture exposes children to humorous violence that desensitizes children and increases bullying and aggression.
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.
The decision to purchase a franchise had both, advantages and disadvantages. The Sonic franchise, while being “the 10th largest fast-food franchise”, can also be a substantial investment if one decides to purchase a traditional store, which ranges between “$1.1 and $3 million” (O. Ferrell, Hirt, & L. Ferrell, 2009, p. 169). That is quite a price tag, but I suppose gaining rights to the name, logo, design, products, advertising, as well as an already-secured loyal following, is worth it in the end. Of course, the company does offer a non-traditional store route for a cheaper investment. In addition to the initial investment, franchisees are responsible for paying Sonic “a franchise fee of $45,000 and 2 to 5 percent in ongoing royalty fees” (O. Ferrell, Hirt, & L. Ferrell, 2009, p. 169).
"Monkey see, Monkey do." Everyone has heard this phrase sometime in his or her life. This phrase is simple, yet very applicable to today's debate. When a child sees someone or something doing something. They will of course follow suit and imitate the action being performed. Children do not know any better. Therefore they are innocent and deserve to be respected. It is for these following reasons that we argue for the censorship of harmful materials that could influence a child or children into violent acts, expressions, and other dangerous actions. Through television, video games, and movies, children and teens view countless acts of violence, brutality, and terror as part of entertainment. They become conditioned to associating violence with entertainment. First-person shooter video games develop our children's skills in operating weapons. The games reward marksmanship, and further reinforce the association of killing with entertainment. In the past, the heroes of movie and television shows were usually people who strictly followed the law. Now, heroes are often people who take the law into their own hands, who see an injustice or evil and seek to rectify it personally, sometimes brutally, regardless of the consequences. Such portrayals signal, to a child, society's approval of that behavior.
Television programs that are targeted towards children, such as cartoons, can affect children in both positive and negative ways. I examined a variety of cartoons on both commercial and public television to observe the content of children's programming and determine the effects, both positive and negative, that programs have on children. The cartoons contain a wide variety of subject matters that can influence children in many different ways. I found that the majority of cartoons choose to use violence and inappropriate subject matter to entertain children. These images and stories can have a tremendous negative impact on children because the violence is rewarded without consequences, is glorified, and idealized. Children look up to the characters that have a negative impact by distorting their views on conflict resolution. There are, however, cartoons that contain little or no violence and often try to incorporate educational lessons that concern values and morals that are important for children to learn, thus having a positive impact.
Most American's would agree that children watch a lot of TV. It's common to see a child sitting in front of the TV on a Saturday morning with their Coco Pebbles watching their favorite superhero. This sounds harmless enough. However, many parents and teachers across the country are worried about the cartoons their children are watching. They feel that the cartoons have become too violent and are having negative long-term effects on children. It is common to see young boys pretending to shoot one another, while jumping on the couch and hiding in closets as a sort of make-believe fort. But parents say that children are learning these behaviors from cartoons and imitating them. Others however, disagree, they say that violence in cartoons does not effect children and that children need this world of fantasy in their lives. They say that children would show these same behaviors regardless of the content of the cartoons they watch.
middle of paper ... ... Educate your child about violence and video games Set time limits on gaming Encourage your child to do other things besides playing video games. REFERENCES Lieberman, Joe (1997) "Video Game Report Card, 1997" http://www.senate.gov/member/ct/lieberman/releases/r112597a.html. Cesarone, Bernard "Video Games and Children" http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/video.games.html Zarozinski, Michael "Video Game Violence 2001" http://www.louderthanabomb.com/vg_voilence.htm "Fact Sheets: Effects of Video Game Play on Children" http://www.mediafamily.org/research/fact/effect.shtml Children Now "Children and the Media 2001" http://www.childrennow.org/media/video-games/2001/#violence The "Violence in Video Games" http://www.gamezero.com/team-0/articles/features/violence_92/ The "Video Game Violence" http://www.mediascope.org/pubs/ibriefs/vgv.htm Walsh, David A. Video Game Violence: What Does the Research Say? 1998.
Choo, K. (2009). VISUAL EVOLUTION ACROSS THE PACIFIC: THE INFLUENCE OF ANIME AND VIDEO GAMES ON US FILM MEDIA. Post Script, 28(2), 28-37.
Rutenberg, Jim. "Violence Finds a Niche in Children's Cartoons." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Jan. 2001. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.