N. Karolides
October 10, 2010 Media Violence and Capital Punishment
In our society, there are two things that are affecting children and adults, media violence and capital punishment also known as the death penalty. The massive amount of violence in today’s media has a negative impact on the young and teenagers, which can lead to aggressive behaviors. Many civilians agree that the media does influence children and teen’s behavior, and some argue that it does not. It is the parents’ responsibility to control what they are watching. In the United States media violence affects children, but outside the media is capital punishment which is real violence.
In the article “Unnatural Killers” John Grisham shows how violence in media can become a reality. It is about two teenagers who went on a killing spree immediately after watching Oliver Stone’s Hollywood production Unnatural Killers. The young couple replicated the actions of the two main characters in the movie. Grisham believes the movie Unnatural Killers is one of Hollywood’s failures because of the amount of influence it had on the young couple. To decrease these events Grisham suggests, “The first way would be a general boycott of similar films. If people refuse to purchase tickets to watch such orgy violence…similar movies wouldn’t be made” (325). Nevertheless, people still go out to see these movies and they are still being made. Oliver Stone’s movie showed murdering people as glamorous which can result in inclination of murder amongst young adults. Many would argue Oliver Stone is not the blame for their horrific actions, but his movie was misleading.
Author John Leo agrees with Grisham’s point of view that the violence in media is a problem. In the article, “When Life Imitates Video”, Leo quotes Grossman who states, “’We have to start worrying about what we are putting into the minds of our young…pilots train on flight stimulators, drivers