1. Jones' thesis in his essay is that media violence does not necessarily harmful to children, rather it is helpful.
2. As evidence in support of his thesis, Jones uses numerous arguments. One argument being people pull themselves out of emotion traps by immersing themselves in violent stories. Another example he uses is a personal one about his son. Jones explains that through out the years his son has used the identities of certain super heroes to over come obstacles in his life. Lastly he uses the example of an older girl who pushed through a tough family time as well as her adolescence by the use of rap music.
3. Jones also identifies arguments against his position on the matter. He explains that one psychologist, Melanie Moore, who works with urban teens who also says that children use violent stories to meet their emotional and developmental needs. The counter argument to this would be that many pop psychologists are insisting that violent stories are harmful to kids.
4. Jones's concluding statement is as follows: When we try to protect our own children from their own feelings and fantasies, we shelter them not against violence but against power and selfhood. In more simple terms, if parents begin to shelter their children too much, they will not have a normal child hood and growing experience.
My Thoughts
After reading this article, the opinion that I though I had on this particular subject has changed. After seeing Jones's point of view I have realized that not all media violence is a bad thing. He makes several great points about how many troubled young children are able to use their comic books as an escape or even a crutch in tough situations growing up. Of course it can be argued that media violence has a negative effect on young children, but i believe this to be false because if children have some limitations to what they can and can not read it can be safe.
Critical Response
According to Gerard Jones, violent media can actually have positive effects on young people because it can help pull children out of emotional traps by immersing themselves in violent stories. Jones also believes that violent media are a positive influence on children because children use violent stories to meet their emotional and developmental needs. Jones makes some good points. For example, he says that pretending to have superhuman powers helps children conquer the feelings of powerlessness that inevitabley come with being so young and small.
Nice summary !!
ReplyDeleteClearly, his "persuasive" article has definitely persuaded you. I'm to write a critique essay on this article and one of the major things that shouldn't be ignored is the lack of evidence. He did included his personal experience, his son's experience and the tomboy girl's experience as a way to back up his point. However, he lacks support for what he means by violent media. He simply referred to those characters who've done justice right after beating up bad guys, but he never mentioned others, which he should have, since he did mention "bloody and violent video games" etc. in his article. He failed to expand on the actual realistic violence displayed in video games such as God of War or Grand Theft Auto, which not only display violence, but nudity, strong language, and other things that are "unsafe" for children.
ReplyDeleteI like those games, btw. I'm sorta practicing on what to say on my essay, exactly why I wrote a rant-like thing lol I'll show myself out.
His ultimate point is that violence in media CAN be used as a helpful resource for young people as means for an outlet. The author couldn't possibly cite ALL possible source of violence, violence IS violence whatever it's justification may be. He could have emphasized this more forcefully by indicating that this method although could be useful it needs to be controlled. Everything in moderation.
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