Andrew Hieken - Blog 1

Andrew Hieken

Summaries:
Article 1 - As the overall topic of all three articles is violence in media, Article 1, "Violent Video Games: The Effects on Youth, and Public Policy Implications", by Douglas A. Gentile and Craig A. Anderson discussed just that, violence in video games.  Gentile and Anderson support a view that, "media violence increases the likelihood of aggressive and violent behavior in both immediate and long-term contexts,"(Anderson et al., 2003, p. 81).  Another main point of this article is the implication of the research into political and public policy.  The article is very well structured starting with a history of video games and the dawn of violence in gaming, to the different research methods and studies, and finishing with the different possible implications to public and political policies.  A plethora of sources and evidence is used in this article from direct quotes to statistical graphs.

Article 2 - The second article, "Weinstein, Tarantino and the Standoff Over Movie Violence", takes on a different approach to violence in media and looks at the movie and television industry more so than gaming.  Main ideas of this article come from comments made by Harvey Weinstein on violence in media.  This article was more loosely structured and moved along from topic to topic relating many different points in a long line, in which at some points the main idea of the article almost seems confusing or forgotten.  This article seems to take on a more opinion based view but still uses many quotations and concreted details from research and studies.

Article 3:  The third article, "Whose Fault Is It?", seems to be the most free formed of all three articles, seeming almost like a rant.  A main idea that seems mainly centered on criticizing critiques.  Marilyn Manson voices in a rather blunt manner his opinion on the true issues with violence in the media.  Manson points fingers not at the entertainment industry but at the very people blaming it.  "Times have not become more violent.  They have just become more televised," said Manson in this interesting view of media and violence.

Reaction:
In my opinion, I would say I found Article 2, "Weinstein, Tarantino and the Standoff Over Movie Violence", to be the most convincing.  I found this article to be the most convincing because it argued that although there has been an increase in violence and crime in the media, there has not been an increase in violence and crime in the real world.  Contrary to what media would have us believe, crime and murder rates in the United States have decreased drastically in the past couple decades.  I found this to be very interesting, and I did not know this before.  Personally, I believe that people blame the entertainment industry for violence and aggression when in reality, there are several other factors that play larger roles in the troubles of violence.  Overall, my understanding and beliefs of the topic of violence in the media and its influence is unchanged.  Although, I do have a greater understanding of the affects on society violence and media have.