Gerard Jones's Essay 'Violent Media Is Good For Kids'

Effect of Violence in Media on Children In his essay "Violent Media is Good for Kids" Gerard Jones states that parents try to shield their children from violence but in reality they keep them from self realization. In the analysis, Jones uses examples from his life experiences and quotes from a professional in child behavior. His argument, however, is incorrect and his support for his argument plays mostly on emotions and no statistical evidence to support his claims. Jones uses his life as an example in proving that violent media is good for kids. He explains how his parents tried to shield him from violent media but "the Incredible Hulk smashed through it." The Hulk taught him to be a more self-empowered person. He tried this violent
media technique with his son and he grew stronger and less vulnerable. Jones quotes Melanie Morre, Ph.D., a psychologist who works with urban teens, who claims that "Fear, greed, power-huger,[and] rage" are necessary for a child 's development but maybe not in reality but through stories.
For example, Jones claims that there are three functions of violent media. He believes that role play gives the child a feeling of power in a world where children are powerless. He also believes that dual identity helps children with their public and private life issues. Lastly, he believes that identifying with rebellious heroes provides children with self-confidence. He claims that parents fear that their children will grow up to become "murderous thugs" but in reality shielding them from violent media weakens our children and decreases their sense of self-empowerment and self-confidence. Though Jones 's argument is very compelling. Jones 's argument has no support. The only support he has is from Dr. Melanie Moore and that quote is also only an opinion about what she believes. He has no statistical evidence to support his claim. Jones ' argument is mainly pathos. He supports his statement only from personal experiences that applies to few people like himself and his son. He gives the example of his son in an attempt to appeal to parents by showing his experience as a father and how his son turned out. The fact is that not all children function the same way. Children need a certain level of mental stability to be able to watch violence in
media. An article by Soledad Liliana Escobar-Chaves describes a study by Kaj Bjorkqvist which proves that children who are exposed to violent media react more violently to situations compared to children who haven 't been exposed. In his study Bjorkqvist splits the children into two different groups and showed a violent movie to one group and a non violent movie to the other. Then the children 's behaviors were observed as they played together. They observed that children who had just watched the violent movie were rated much "higher on physical assault and other types of aggression" compared to the others (Escobar-Chaves). Violence in media does affect the way our children react to real-life situations. We should limit the violence in media that our children see to keep them from reacting violently. Jones maybe right in the fact that violence in media might increase a child 's self-esteem but it does more damage to a child 's character than good.
Work Cited

Jones, Gerard. "Violent Media is Good for Kids." 28 June 2000. Mother Jones. 4 October 2012 .
Soledad Liliana Escobar-Chaves, Craig A. Anderson. "Aggressive and Violent Behavior ." Children and Electronic Media (2008): 1-6.