Violence... Is it alright?

        According to Gerard Jones, violent media can actually have positive effects on young people because it helps children overcome fears, develop strong social skills, and use their natural feelings of aggression and violence to stimulate self-confidence. Jones also believes that violent media are a positive influence on children because it can provide children the ability to create a “fantasy self” (para. 4) that equips them with tools to deal with life’s challenges, therefore not fearing the emotion of rage, but channeling it into positive energy. Jones makes some good points. For example, he says that Marvel Comics, and the character Hulk, freed him from “stifled rage and a buried desire for power” (para. 4), allowing him to make new friends, and eventually become brave enough to believe that other people would want to read what he had to say. However, others believe that violent media directed at young people lead to real-world violent acts. All in all, Jones presents a strong argument that violent media can be good for kids based on his own personal experience and proven research from Melanie Moore, Ph.D., a psychologist who works with urban teens who states, “children need violent entertainment in order to explore the inescapable feelings that they’ve been taught to deny, and reintegrate those feelings into a more whole, complex, more resilient selfhood” (para. 9).
CNN
        Recently, the media has been saturated with reports of violent acts, some even linked to terrorism, and it is becoming all too common. For example, one such incident was the shooting at a predominately gay night club in Orlando, Florida, where suspected terrorist Omar Mateen opened fire in the crowded Pulse Nightclub killing 49 people and wounding 53 others before being killed by police after a three hour standoff. The two major cable news networks, CNN and Fox News, often cover the same story with different agendas, or perspectives. As a person who watched reports from both outlets, I detected certain biases taken by both sides, depending on whether they agree or disagree with the lifestyle of the victims. The images of terrified survivors and bloody bodies on stretchers are used by the media to illicit a very specific response from the public. For example, those in favor of gun control laws use incidents like this to promote their agenda of more government control over citizens owning fire arms and possibly revoking the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.   

While it’s no secret that violence surrounds us in our everyday lives, it begs to question what effect it has on us as humans. Let us for example take me, I’m an almost 30-year-old man who loves action movies and violent video games, but up until this point, I have not become a sociopath nor have I murdered anyone…. Yet.

Works Cited

Jones, Gerard. “Violent Media is Good For Kids.” Practical Argument, 3rd ed., edited by Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2017, pp. 64-67.

  http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/12/us/orlando-nightclub-shooting/index.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Post #5

Image
Kristof begins his essay "Where Sweatshops Are A Dream"  by painting a picture of a place that he describes as a “Dante-like vision of hell”, where people dream of working in sweatshops instead of rummaging through piles of hot smoldering garbage for anything that might fetch a penny. The problem he identifies is, many countries want to wage war on sweatshops, however in some of the poorest areas of the world, working in a sweatshop is a dream job. Kristof assumes his readers are blind to the fact that places like this exist, or either don’t want to admit it. His purpose in this essay is to bring awareness that in some poverty-stricken countries sweatshops are a means to a better life. In order to accomplish this purpose, he appeals mainly to the emotions of the reader, describing children digging through piles of smoking trash to find plastic to sell for five cents a pound. In his essay, Kristof addresses the main argument against his thesis, the idea that sweatshop...
Read more

What Arguing Means To Me

Image
Blog Post 2 Mostly what I have learned about arguments is the technical jargon associated with it, such as the pathos, ethos, etc. In the 29 years I have been alive I feel like I have a pretty broad understanding of what an argument is.  People can pick out technical aspects of what an argument is all day but when it comes down to it an argument is almost primal instinct in a way, it comes from the core of our being. When we hear someone doesn't believe what we believe, or doesn't agree with what we agree with its in our DNA to challenge that person, a lot of times even physically.  I feel I had a pretty good understanding of what an argument was coming in to this class, and now we will dive deep into what forms an argument, what makes an argument valid, and how to present your argument in a healthy way.  But this is just my opinion, if you don't like it... TOUGH.
Read more