Violent Media Essay - 1316 Words

Gerard Jones is quite a fan of The Hulk and Tarzan comic books. In his essay â€Å"Violent Media is Good for Kids† Jones argues that the violence in those and other comics teach valuable lessons that will help children understand difficult emotions. Jones states that in â€Å"try (ing) to protect our children from their own feelings and fantasies, we shelter them not against violence but against power and selfhood.† Throughout the essay Jones relies on personal anecdotes that reveal his opinions about violence in comics and other media instead of citing formal research. Jones’ personal experience is that violent media is not generally harmful, and fills an important place in childhood imagination and play. It is true that as children we find†¦show more content†¦Social psychologist Brad Bushman at Ohio State University showed students violent pictures as part of a study: one picture was of a man shoving a gun down another man s throat; another was of a man holding a knife to a woman s throat. What we found is for people who were exposed to a lot of violent video games, their brains did not respond to the violent images, Bushman said. They were numb, if you will.[3] I believe that this numbness is what the concern about violence in the media is based on. It concerns society because of the potential threat to society posed by learned violence. Chris Ferguson, a psychologist at Texas AM International University said Many of the [video] games do have morally objectionable material and I think that is where a lot of the debate on this issue went off the rails, we kind of mistook our moral concerns about some of these video games, which are very valid — and then assumed that what is morally objectionable is harmful.[4] I personally find it hard to view the Tarzan comic books that got Jones’ son to climb a tree in the same category as Call of Duty. I think that the potential impact of much media has been exaggerated. Towards the end of his essay Jones mentions that he cannot argue that violent media is completely harmless saying â€Å"I think it [violent entertainment] has helped inspire some people to real-life violence. I am going to argue that it’s helped hundreds of of people for every one it’s hurt, and that it can helpShow MoreRelatedViolent Media Is Good for Kids Essay942 Words   |  4 PagesViolent Media is Good for Kids Analysis From infancy onward, parents and teachers have drilled into the young generation that violence should be avoided at all costs. They have preached cooperation, tolerance, and â€Å"using one’s words† as tactics to combat difficult situations. Although those lessons are valid, Gerald Jones claims there is an alternative way. In his essay, â€Å"Violent Media is Good for Kids,† Jones argues that â€Å"creative violence- bonking cartoons, bloody videogames, toy guns-givesRead MoreViolent Media Is Good For Kids Essay1083 Words   |  5 PagesViolent Comics Are the New Superheroes In the writing of Gerard Jones â€Å"Violent Media is Good for Kids† is very interesting essay in which he describes how violent media can help kids to overcome obstacles, but whether it is convincing or not, I am not truly sure because the way the essay is written is biased. Jones as writer is making this controversial topic to gain more audience to read his writings, in addition, this essay fails in detail, it needs more statistics to support the examples thatRead MoreEssay on Violent Media...Good for Kids? 970 Words   |  4 PagesIn â€Å"Violent Media is Good for Kids† Gerard Jones introduces us to his fearful and lonesome childhood. 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Yet, millions of children under the age of 17 still have free access to violent media. However, even though childrenRead MoreEssay on Media Violence Does NOT Cause Violent Behavior2932 Words   |  12 Pagesthe human psyche. This is an assertion that could be supported, in no small part, by the manifestations o f the human psyche we see in our own violent, erotic and chaotic dreams. As a culture, again with religious fundamentalist and perhaps politically-correct feminist exceptions, we pretty much take these literary forms for granted in terms of their violent and seemingly antisocial content. Parents lovingly read their children to sleep with images of forced drudgery, painful mutilations, and vengeful