Blog Post #1

Article 1: The first article was about how violence in the media, particularly video games, can cause an adolescent to act more aggressively and are more likely to engage in violent behavior. The article gives a brief history of the first violent games to be released and the public outcry that went along with it as well as goes in-depth into studies done about violence in games. It is structured like a research paper, and seems like something not meant to be read by an everyday person. This was an very interesting article and presents a lot of relevant information to the limelight. Though I've played violent video games all my life and I haven't necessarily behaved in any aggressive way myself. 

Article 2: The second article dealt more so with violence in movies and how the public seems to crave it not only in the movies but in media in general. The producer Harvey Weinstein and his gory movies are a central component of the article and how he deals with his reputation as someone who loves gory movies. The author of the article doesn't believe that there's enough evidence to support that media violence causes negative effects on the public. This article is broken up into many paragraphs and isn't too formally written. The author gives evidence on most of the things he speaks on and even includes a quote from a study in the article. My reaction to the article was rather indifferent. Violence in movies and television has progressively gotten worse and the public eats it up. I personally am a fan of anything that involves a massive shootout or someone getting disemboweled so Quentin Tarantino and directors of his type remain to be in my favor.

Article 3: The last article was by the popular and once highly controversial musical artist Marilyn Manson. He spoke out on how the media has turned violent criminals into heroes and turned violence into something that is almost romanticized about. He mentioned religion and how the very violent stories of Cain and Abel as well as Jesus Christ are something that humankind have seemed to embrace instead of question. He also brings up the atom bomb and how even though it was made to kill, it was justified since it had a good enough reason to be used on our enemies. Instead of placing the blame on him, he says that America should take a look in the mirror because we are the reason violent crimes happen, not his or anyone else's music.

Reaction: My favorite article by far was Marilyn Manson's because he brings up many points that i also believe to be true as well as many questions that I have pondered. Though the most informative for me was the first article which brought up points that i had not known. I had always thought that it was not only scientifically proven, but just common sense that all the violence that is shoved into our faces would have some sort of negative impact on our psyche if we don't have someone who is able to tell us right from wrong. Though my beliefs haven't changed, I definitely have more questions and will seek more answers in the future.