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Violence in kids is an epidemic that unfortunately keeps growing, and parents are quick

to blame the media for it. Comic book writer, Gerard Jones, analyzed this idea and wrote

Violent Media is Good for Kids after concluding that while violent video games, stories,

movies, and games children learn can have a negative effect for some, it actually brings benefit

to the majority. Jones begins building his credibility with the experiences he has, research he

conducted, and work he has done with others regarding this topic to appeal to the minds of

parents that constricting what their kids can tell stories about or what they play on the

playground also restricts them from certain feelings that all people have, which can lead to

violence just as much as the media can.

Jones starts his article using his own childhood as an example. He grew up alone and

afraid and his parents did not expose him to violent media because cooperation was always a

better solution than conflict, , so he did not know how to release these emotions that are

natural, but were taught to him as wrong (Jones #). Jones para 1). When one of his mothers

friends convinced her to let him read Marvel, a new side of 13 year old13-year-old Gerard Jones

came out after reading The Incredible Hulk (Jones #para 2-4). He became a brave young man,

who played with the kids and had a fantasy self to carry my stifled rage unafraid of his

desires and the worlds disapproval, (Jones para 4#). This eventually led to his career as a comic

book writer, because he wanted to carry on that feeling he got as a child, to all kids (Jones para

5#). He noticed the same thing happen to his child. Unlike his parents, however, he introduced

his son to comics and superheroes at a very young age, and after learning from the stories, his

son had the bravery to get through preschool, kindergarten, climbing a tree, and much more of
his childhood (Jones para 6#). Jones noticed a pattern and realized these comics seem to be good

for kids. He used pathos, his personal experiences, emotions, and understandings as his main

method of appeal to illustrate that violent media creates an outlet for kids to be able to release

rage, be courageous, but and still not act on violence.

After Jones noticed the pattern with him and his son, he decided to conduct some

research, because his realization contradicts what many pop psychologists are saying about

violence (Jones para 7-8#). School shootings are becoming more of a problem as time goes on

and pop psychologists and parents are blaming what they call junk culture, which includes

violent media, and they say it is what causes the increase in actual youth violence (Jones para

7#). Urban teen psychologist, Dr. Melanie Moore, wrote on the subject and Jones looks into it

(Jones para 9#). He reads that Moore writes, Fear, greed, power-hunger, rage: these are aspects

of our selvesourselves that we try not to experience in our lives but often want, even need, to

experience vicariously through stories of others Children need violent entertainment in order

to explore the inescapable feelings that theyve been taught to deny, and to reintegrate those

feelings into a more whole, more complex, more resilient selfhood, (Jones para 9#). Along with

her degree backing her up, Moore consults to public schools and local governments, and is also

raising a daughter, so she has a lot of experience and credibility in this area, and the fact that it

coincides with Joness theory makes him more confident in his point of view that violent media

is not all bad (Jones para 10#). He eventually gets in contact with Moore and ended up helping

her start Power Play, a program for helping young people improve their self-knowledge and

sense of potency through heroic, combative storytelling, (Jones para 10#). Jones uses the

research to build his credibility as another method of persuasion to illustrate his purpose.
 Jones agrees that violent media is not completely harmless however he is addressing

that it has more benefits than it does detriments. Jones notes, its helped hundreds of people for

every one its hurt, (Jones #para 16). He describes the idea of creative violence which helps

kids deal with anger without putting hands on other people through stories, video games, comic

books, and more (Jones para 12#). Anger is a natural emotion that everyone will feel at some

point in their lives, no matter how nice they may be (Jones para 12#). However, kids have to

learn a way to deal with this anger and rage before it happens so they understand how to cope

with these emotions. It is a fundamental life skill and violent media helps us release anger before

we act upon it ourselves.

Jones did a very good job addressing this issue and I believe it was very effective. I have

always believed that violent media was not too bad, but I could never really explain why it was a

benefit to kids. After reading Joness article, my beliefs made sense and now had evidence to

back it up. While there is no concrete evidence to prove either side of this argument, I believe

through Joness methods of appeal in his article, his experience, research, and beliefs, that he did

a very efficient job in conveying his purpose to his audience.

While this essay works as a rhetorical analysis (despite its focus on summary), it does draw

attention to numerous citation difficulties you must master before you compose your second

essay of the semester.

 Works Cited

Jones, Gerard. "Violent Media Is Good for Kids." Practical Argument. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford,

n.d. 58-61. Print.