The comic author Gerard Jones famous for writing for many of the big comic book companies including marvel and dc, hypothesizes that media violence is good for children and not detrimental as it teaches them to control their anger. But is this hypothesis valid, I will be analyzing Jones’ argument try to answer the question is violent media really good for kids?
The purpose of Jones’s essay is to establish that violent media do not in fact cause violence but in fact is a way of socializing children and teaching them how to react to their own conflicts. He first uses the example of his sheltered upbringing and love of the character the Hulk, a character that is not restrained socially and acts entirely on impulse destroying anything in his way. The character he lives is a release and a form of catharsis, a character that has none of the responsibilities or worries that you have, that Jones uses as a way to overcome his own problems.
Jones writes in the third person in a humble down to earth sort of way and his writing skill is evident and sincere as he touches on his own family. He talks about his son who was afraid to climb a tree but then he reads to him stories of tarzan and his son overcomes the fear of climbing. Jones uses the story to illustrate that children don’t really know who or what to be but they choose from what they see, violence is only a small part of the characters, what’s more evident is their trials over adversity and how climbing a tree seems small to the challenges they face and this in turn helps his child to overcome that fear.
He draws on the work of a Psychologist called Melanie Moore Phd who talks about the need for children to experience violent media. She outlines that violent media is essentially for teaching children the things their parents shun and try to protect them from. They need to experience these complex feelings to fully establish themselves as people, after all violence is part of being a human being. Everybody feels rage, no matter who you are or how you have been raised you will feel anger at some point in your life. Jones’ hypothesises that violent media are essential for teaching children how to control that anger. I think this is a sound assertion rage and violence is part of us there’s no escaping that but today we’re taught to fear that side of ourselves and violent media helps us to understand that side of ourselves better and fear it less, resulting in a greater understanding of ourselves.
Jones agrees that some violent media has resulted in inspiring violent crime but he states for every one person it has hurt it has helped a hundred more to conquer their fears of themselves. Media doesn’t manufacture behaviour they don’t alter people the only impact they have is on the aesthetic, so the film isn’t the ‘why’ it’s just the ‘how’. The only impact The Matrix had on the columbine killers was their choice of clothes, which seems like a moot point when the cause of their actions was their parents and their school ignoring the fact they were obviously being bullied not to mention the fact they were collecting guns. Not that I believe gun collecting precipitates shooting but what other uses do guns have? In conclusion I think Jones is his best evidence and as someone who has also enjoyed violent media at an early both he and I haven’t killed anyone or committed any violent crimes.
Works Cited
Brink, S. (2013) Happiness is a Warm gun and The Educated Gamer: Grand Theft Argument. Retrieved from
http://gamersyndrome.com/2013/video-games/happiness-warm-gun/
http://www.puresophistry.com/2013/02/01/educated-gamer-grand-theft-argument/
Jones, G. (2000) Violent Media is Good for Kids
Poole, S. (2001) Trigger Happy
