Creative Violence Is Always Good
In our society today there have been claims that violent media is not appropriate for children and may make them dangerous in the future. In Gerard Jones essay, “Violent Media Is Good For Kids” Jones argues that violent media can actually have positive effects on children because it helps pull children out of emotional states by placing themselves in violent stories. He uses numerous arguments including ones about himself and how he came out of his shell whenever he bottled up his feelings. Gerard Jones makes the assumption that allowing children to experience violent media is healthy because it helps tame their sudden rages.
Jones uses numerous arguments to show the positive effects of violent media such as the one about himself. His parents built a thick wall between him and the cruel world that revolved around him while growing up. For example Jones says, “I suffocated my deepest fears and desires under a nice-boy persona” (Jones 195). Since his parents blocked him in from the outside world he never learned how to vent out his emotions and became depressed. He also states, “…afraid to join my peers in their bumptious rush into adolescence boyhood, I withdrew into passivity and loneliness” (Jones 195). Although he was shy and lonely as a child he soon learned how to venture out when his mother gave him Marvel Comic books. His mother gave him these because she thought they would be good for him and little did she know they were. His main hero was The Hulk, his character “raged against a frightened world that misunderstood and persecuted him” (Jones 195). From reading this comic book he learned to create a fantasy where he turned his rage and fear into power. The Hulk was unafraid of the disappro...
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Gerard Jones makes a very effective argument to readers as well as myself. Violent media is healthy because it helps pull children as well as some adults out of emotional states by placing themselves in violent stories that make them find courage and power through fantasies of superhuman powers and destruction. Parents should allow their children to experience some type of juvenile violence because it shows them how to learn to control their natural aggression through fantasies and to not act them out in real life and harm others or themselves. Based off of Jones numerous arguments it is hard to believe that violent media actually does effect children in a negative way.
Works Cited
• Jones, Gerard. “Violent Media Is Good For Kids,” Current Issues and Enduring Questions. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 195-199. Print
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.
Gina Marchetti, in her essay "Action-Adventure as Ideology," argues that action- adventure films implicitly convey complex cultural messages regarding American values and the "white American status quo." She continues to say that all action-adventure movies have the same basic structure, including plot, theme, characterization, and iconography. As ideology, this film genre tacitly expresses social norms, values, and morals of its time. Marchetti's essay, written in 1989, applies to films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Rambo: First Blood II. However, action-adventure films today seem to be straying farther away from her generalizations about structure, reflecting new and different cultural norms in America. This changing ideology is depicted best in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994), which defies nearly every concept Marchetti proposes about action-adventure films; and it sets the stage for a whole new viewpoint of action in the '90's.
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
Finding other forms of stimulation to satisfy one’s sense such as exercise and family activities instead of watching a film is a healthier alternative. Limiting the amount of time exposed to violent films, will in effect lower the risk of negative effects. Understanding media literacy will lead individuals to recognize the problems associated with media violence and “how the effects process works”(Potter 186). Above all, we need to guide one another, children especially and educate ourselves on the subject matter together.
Malcolm, T. Teen Violence: Does Violent Media Make Violent Kids? National Catholic Reporter. May 28, 1999 v35 i30 p14.
Does entertainment influence society's attitude towards violent behavior? In order to fully answer this question we must first understand what violence is. Violence is the use of one's powers to inflict mental or physical injury upon another; examples of this would be rape or murder. Violence in entertainment reaches the public by way of television, movies, plays, music, and novels. Through the course of this essay it will be proven that violence in entertainment is a major factor in the escalation of violence in society, once this is proven we will take all of the evidence that has been shown throughout this paper and come to a conclusion as to whether or not violence in entertainment is justified and whether or not it should be censored.
Emmons, Sasha. "Is Media Violence Damaging to Kids?" CNN. Cable News Network, 21 Feb. 2013. Web. 28 Nov. 2013.
Therefore this impacts us a bundle, but like every good thing it also has an unfavorable side to it: “The media teaches kids that violence is acceptable. In video games, the way to beat an opponent is to punch, kick, or knock him out. In some video games, you might even kill your opponent. In movies, the good guy wins when he violently defeats his enemy.” (How Media Affect Teens and Young Adult.)
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.
Ledingham, Jane E., Ledingham C. A., & Richardson, John E. (1993). La violence dans les médias: ses effets sur les enfants. Retrieved October 28, 2009, from http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/H72-21-91-1993F.pdf
By the time a child reaches the age of one, they see about 200,000 acts of violence on television. (Nakaya, 3). The Media has been becoming more and more violent over the years. A poll in an issue of Times Magazine, from 2005, showed that 66 percent of Americans think that there is an abundant amount of graphic acts of violence on televisions (Nakaya, 18). People are exposed to thousands of acts of violence through video games, television, and movies. Many studies show that media violence increases violent behavior in in humans. Studies show, violent video games, and graphic television have physiological effects on children. The government has very few regulations on media violence. Some people believe the government shouldn’t limit content because others might be insulted by its material. Media violence is such a broad topic and has such a large presence in daily lives, so we cannot simple get rid of it. The Federal Communications Commission stipulates, “By the time most children begin the third grade, they will have spent the equivalent of three school years in front of a television set.” Even though the government shouldn’t censor the media, Media violence is becoming a serious issue because it is becoming more violent, it makes people behave violently, and it has little regulations.