Reader Response: Violent Media is Good for Kids

In apiece written by Gerard Jones about violent media and their effects on children. He addresses how violent media is actually good for children and in some cases helps them over come their social and personal fears.

In his article, Jones draws upon many personal stories and first hand accounts of children using violent media as a tool to overcome their social situations. The use of the personal stories are meant to appeal to the reader’s emotions because of how easily relatable the stories are to them. Jones also tells a story about a girl, which spent most of her childhood listening to gangster rap. She then grew up to become a college educated adult. Jones makes a logical appeal to the audience; try making a connection between people who listen to gangster rap and children that consume violent media. He is trying to state that adults and children who are exposed to media that is heavy in violence and drug use does not mean that they’ll follow it. Jones also makes ethical appeal, by quoting the work of a psychologist that works with urban city kids and also gives stories from raising his son. In the quotes and story it is clear that the overall theme is that; children uses violent media as a way to experience some acts that are looked down upon in society. Jones makes this ethical appeal to give weight on his ability to talk on the subject. 

Jones’s argument is strong but uses mostly emotional appeal. He does also try to appeal to the others but doesn’t use enough examples to strengthen them. He makes logical and ethical appeals but moves through it quickly and doesn’t expand on it further than his use of emotional appeals. Jones address upon his opponent augment against violent medial and it’s bad effects on children. He again uses emotional appeal to address his opposing argument. Also he lightly uses logical argument to address his opponent’s ideas. His over use of emotional appeals grows tiring and pushes away the reader from his argument.

Jones’s structure and language flows very well from one idea to the next. His ideas are easy to follow and is not feel disjointed. Also his use of language is easy to understand and often times feels like he is relating to everyone’s childhood and memories.

I feel that violent media is good for children. They often use the stories to fuel their own imaginations and as a moral compass. In my own childhood, my fantasies were often violent but were never really acted upon besides some light play fighting with friends. I would also use the characters set of morals as my own during in my youth. In my opinion many of us are ignoring that many oral stories and myths that we told in our youth were just as violent as the ones offered in the media.