- Cover Page
- Peer FEEDBACK:
- Here is my Causal Argument - Rough Draft.
- Rutgers University, Rutgers Researcher’s Study Cites Media Violence as ‘Critical Risk Factor’ for Aggression http://news.rutgers.edu/medrel/news-releases/2008/11/rutgers-researcher20-20081118
- The Henry James Kaiser Family Foundation, 2003, http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/Key-Facts-TV-Violence.pdf
- Psychiatric Times, Murray, 2001, http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/54801?pageNumber=2
- Cyber College, 2007, http://www.cybercollege.com/violence.htm
- Peer Reviews
- My Peer Reviews for unit two
- Causal Assignment Final Draft
- My Causal Final Paper Peer Grading From My Peers
- Causal Final Paper - The Grading for Peer Papers - Earl, Aldajana, and Dylan A
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Cover Page
1. What is the purpose of your paper? The purpose is to show how children that are exposed to a lot of violent programs on TV can develop aggressive behaviors that continue with them as they become adults. There are not exact figures on how many children become aggressive by watching violent programs ( at least I haven't found one yet), but there is the possibility for a child to become aggressive by watching the television programs that are on everyday. It is true that not every child that watches these programs becomes overly aggressive, however, there are studies that show that a percentage of children do become aggressive or harmful to other people.
2. Who is your target audience? Parents are the main target of my paper. However, people who are interested/concerned about how TV programming may be affecting them are also a target audience.
3. What is your thesis statement? That violent television programs lead to aggressive and potentially violent behaviors in children that continue into their adulthood.
4. Did you learn/try anything new while growing this composition? Yes, I learned that there have been a lot of studies about this topic since the early 1950's. There are so many studies that one would believe that the television is a terrible way to pass your time away, whether that is true or not is up to each individual to decide how much TV you want to watch.
5. What do you like best about your composition? About your composition process? Here's where you talk about your best experiments (Did you mix genres? Where you able to integrate ideas from different sources with your own? etc) There is a lot of work to be done to this paper before I would say I liked a specific part of it, there are many avenues that can be explored and written about.
6. Of the feedback you garnered in our workshop, what piece of information was most valuable/helpful? I wasn't in class for the feedback, :(.
7. Where would you like to see the most feedback/advice on your final draft? How the paper flows, does it keep the audience interested from start to finish. Are the paragraphs being transitioned properly, is the paper easy to read. Is the information backing the causal argument well enough? Any input on the paper is welcomed.
Peer FEEDBACK:
Earl-
The purpose of this causal paper is clear and the examples that you provide, whether they be statistical or visual, back up the thesis statement. The paragraphs are clear and segmented to introduce a new statement. With some grammatical touch ups, you definitely got an A capable paper.
Some suggestions:
Rephrase last sentence from first paragraph.
“They are causing behavior problems by the way desensitizing and by leading to aggression or harmful behavior.”
Dylan K
Nathan -
Paul - Another very strong topic and controversial. I think that violent T.V. shows do help in molding kids into to violent people in certain ways. I feel that your paper helps to relate violence in T.V. to children. Transitions were mostly easy to follow and the paper was pretty easy to read. I feel like you are reaching out to the audience that you wanted to. The sentence structure was pretty good and the paragraph were well written. You cited some key topics and I feel like you can expand of them a bit more, like I feel there could be more examples of the tv shows or maybe even links to those show websites or youtube clips of the show to better your argument. Very good paper!
Here is my Causal Argument - Rough Draft.
Violent Television Programs Lead to Negative Behaviors in Children and Adolescents
Violent television programs have historically been at the center of major research studies for decades. Many of these studies show that some of the programs we are watching are impacting our children in a negative way. The kids who watch a lot of violence are exposed to becoming more aggressive or harmful to others. How are television programs causing these problems? They are causing behavior problems by the way desensitizing and by leading to aggression or harmful behavior.
Violent programs have been a staple of American television for years. More often than not they show how a good guy can use violence to solve the issues that he/she is facing without any consequences. These programs create a false sense that violence is an acceptable way of dealing with problems. A study by Rutgers University shows that even when other factors are considered, such as academic skills, encounters with community violence, or emotional problems, “childhood and adolescent violent media preferences contributed significantly to the prediction of violence and general aggression” in the study subjects(Rutgers,2008). So basically the study showed that even though the subjects have other factors they are dealing with, violent programs were an underlying and contributing factor in predicting if they would be violent or aggressive.
Even seemingly innocent programs have a lot of violence within them. An older 1992 study commissioned by TV Guide gives a break-down of a typical 18 hour television broadcast day. There were over 1800 violent acts during that time period, with cartoons leading the way in violence with 471 (Cyber College, 2006).Cartoons are a major factor in most kids everyday lives. What are they really learning from them? Cartoons are not the way kids are seeing violence: movies, toy commercials, and commercials for films are other ways kids witness violent acts. The average child who watches 2 hours of cartoons a day may see nearly 10,000 violent incidents each year, of which the researchers estimate that at least 500 pose a high risk for learning and imitating aggression and becoming desensitized to violence (Kaiser Foundation, 2003). A 2001 study by John Murray did a complete brain scan with an MRI on 8 children while they watched violent and non-violent material for 18 minutes. The selection of material was two segments from Rocky 4, two segments of National Geographic animal programs, Ghostwriter – a children’s mystery program. What they found is that during both violent and non-violent segments activated similar parts of the brain, but the violent segments triggered something more within the brain. They have an effect on areas of the brain that effect arousal and attention, detection of a threat, motor programming, and episodic memory encoding and retrieval (Psychiatric Times, 2001). This study was important because it shows that watching violent programs have the effect that viewing video violence activates brain areas that are responsible for the emotional processing of video violence.
While proponents of television programs say that there are a smaller number of violent programs on TV, they do not take into account that the number of channels available today increases the amount of programs that are being viewed. The type of violence that we are seeing today is also more explicit. Programs are showing more gore and at earlier times. The number of prime-time programs with violence increased between the years 1994 and 1997, from 53% to 67% on broadcast television (Kaiser Foundation, 2003). Children are exposed to more violence and at times that are usually reserved for the family, around eight o’clock. For example, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was popular show that routinely used violence to destroy vampires. In one 1998 episode Buffy decapitates a demon with a battle ax and his head flies through the air for all to see. In a 2002 episode of Providence, one of the main characters pulls a knife out of a man’s chest. Graphic violence plays an important role in the way that children view the world and how they can react in that world, right or wrong.
Children that watch a lot of violent media are more likely to show aggressive behavior and end up in serious trouble as they get older. In 2003 a study followed 329 children for 15 years and determined that the ones who viewed violent programming where more likely to be convicted of a crime as they got older. It also showed that girls were more susceptible to throwing things at their spouses and boys would be more likely to get violent with their wives. It would seem that children who watch a lot of violent programs have problems that go with them as they come of age. Run ins with the law, social problems with others, and aggressiveness as a way of dealing with issues. The Rutgers study used several risk factors that lead to aggression and showed that while those factors were present that media violence enhanced the violent behavior of the subjects. By the way, those subjects that were studied were 820 adolescents in Michigan, 430 high school students and 390 juvenile delinquents that were being held in juvenile detention. This would suggest that violent programs potentially had something to do with the 390 juvenile delinquents committing crimes that led to their incarceration and that the 430 students have shown some form of aggression during their teen years.
In conclusion, television programs have become more violent and more and more children are watching them. There is no doubt that these programs are affecting a percentage of these kids who view them and are exposed to it daily. Children are being more aggressive and violent towards whoever causes them a problem. Studies are showing that there is a connection between watching violent media and the way that children are developing more aggressive behaviors. We as a society need to take into account that what we are seeing on TV is having a negative impact on all of us not just our children. We need to become more proactive in what our kids are viewing and let them know that what is on TV is not always true in real-life.
Works Cited
Peer Reviews
Dylan K peer review
Nathan's Unit Two Reviews
Sue
1. What is the purpose of your argument? To show how violence on television can effect a person's behavior and can lead to aggressiveness.
Earl-
Great paper Paul. You definitely establish your stance and your thesis that TV violence leads to violent tendencies amongst our youth. You utilize all the artistic appeals throughout the paper especially when it comes to your statistical analysis (logos). All your paragraphs transition to make the flow of the paper logical and clear. A paper.
Causal Assignment Final Draft
Violent Television Programs Lead to Negative Behaviors
Violent television programs have historically been at the center of major research studies for decades. Many of these studies show that some of the programs we are watching are impacting our children in a negative way. The kids who watch a lot of TV violence are exposed to becoming more aggressive or harmful to others. How are television programs causing these problems? They lay the foundation in young children that can lead to aggression, harmful behavior, and even criminal acts throughout their lives.
Violent television programs have been a staple of American television for years. More often than not, they show how a good guy can use violence to solve the issues that he/she is facing without any consequences. These programs create a false sense that violence is an acceptable way of dealing with problems. Most adults can watch a program and know that the behavior being shown may not acceptable in our society and would not think of mimicking the behavior. However, a child, who at a very young age will imitate the behavior whether it is bad or good. This scenario happens every day in real life, children imitating a behavior that they have just watched on a television program. They usually imitate the behavior with or towards their friends who are with them, even if the behavior is violent or unacceptable. While most people say that it is the parent’s job to monitor their kids, the sad reality is that most parents can’t monitor their children’s watching habits all the time. In the Kaiser Foundation Study of over 3000 children, they found that of the children within the 2-18 years old range, 21% on average watched television mainly alone during the course of the day. The breakdown for specific age groups is as follows: 2 - 7 year olds – 14%, 8 – 13 year olds –30%, and 14 – 18 year olds – 41% (Kaiser, Kids and Media, 1999). Some studies have shown that as much as 75% of the kids in the study have watched television alone (New Science, Motluk, 2002).
An interesting study by Rutgers Universityshows that even when other factors are considered, such as academic skills, encounters with community violence, or emotional problems, “childhood and adolescent violent media preferences contributed significantly to the prediction of violence and general aggression” in the study subjects (Rutgers,2008). Known risk factors such as low family income, dangerous neighborhoods, and psychiatric problems are also taken into account when evaluating the data they are collecting. Studies like the Rutgers study take into account these factors that the subjects are dealing with in their everyday lives and then try to look at all of those aspects to determine what is the underlying cause that makes some of them become violent or aggressive. That underlying cause happens to be violent television programs that are being viewed at an early age and over an extended period of time on a daily basis. While not all children who watch violent programs become aggressive towards others, a percentage of them do become aggressive and do commit violent acts as they get older. The kids that do become more aggressive are the ones that we have to worry about because they are the ones likely to be aggressive towards your kids or anyone who gets in their path.
Columbia University released a study in 2000 that followed a group of 700 children for 25 years showed that there was a definite link between watching television and their violent behaviors. The average age of the children in the study was between 1 and 10 years old when it began. In 2000 the subjects filled out questionnaires about their aggression, and then they were cross-checked with the FBI and state records. What had been found was that 45% of the men who had watch three hours or more of television at age 14 went on to commit an aggressive act against someone as they got older. While only nine percent of the men who spent an hour or less watching TV at the same age went on to commit a crime against someone else. Another finding was that the men who watched three hours or more had over 20 percent of them that went on to commit crimes like robbery or they used a weapon to commit a crime. The women are another story. The ones who were 30 years old in 2000 had their violence predictor at the age of 22 (they watched 3 hours or more TV at that age), much older than the men at 14. Of these women about seventeen percent had committed an aggressive act, while the girls who watched less than an hour had no-one commit an aggressive act in their group. So basically the studies showed that even though the subjects have other factors they are dealing with, violent programs were an underlying and contributing factor in predicting if they would be violent or aggressive.
Some older studies have shown that violent television programs have accounted for increased aggressions in many places. In one study conducted between 1973 and 1975, a remote Canadian town had not had a television prior to 1973 because they could not receive the necessary signals until that year. So some University of British Columbia researchers used two towns that already had televisions as a comparison model against the town that was just getting the television. They took forty-five first and second graders from each of the three towns and measured their aggression rates. After two years of having the television they went back to see if the aggression rates had changed. To make the study unbiased, a different group of assessors went the second time to analyze the kids. There was not a difference in the towns that previously had the television, but there was a marked increase of aggression of 160 percent in the town that had the TV for just two years. Plus the research showed that the aggression was not discriminate between boys and girls or between the kids who were aggressive to begin with and those that weren’t aggressive. The increase in aggression was among all the kids in the new town, regardless of prior conditions.
Brandon S. Centerwall did a study on murder rates in the U.S., Canada, and South Africa and published his findings in 1993. South Africa did not have television prior to 1975 because of government restrictions. What Centerwall did was look at the white murder rates only within those three countries because that would give a fair judgment as to whether TV was a cause for an increase in violence. The results he found showed that the murder rate between the years 1945 – 1974 increased 93 percent in the U.S., 92 percent in Canada, and was only 7 percent in South Africa over the same time period. It typically took about fifteen years for the murder rate to double in the U.S and Canada after the introduction of the television, and about the same amount of time for the murder rate to increase in South Africa. Since television affects children, the 15 years represents the time needed for the television generation to grow into adulthood and actually commit the murders. One other interesting fact was that Centerwall researched other common factors such as economies and civil unrest as causes for the increase in murders but found they were not the cause of the increase in murders. He does state that “every violent act is the result of a variety of forces coming together - - poverty, crime, alcohol and drug abuse, stress - - of which childhood TV exposure is just one” (BNET, 2009, Centerwall, 1993).
Even seemingly innocent programs have a lot of violence within them. An older 1992 study commissioned by TV Guide gives a break-down of a typical 18 hour television broadcast day. There were over 1800 violent acts during that time period, with cartoons leading the way in violence with 471 (Cyber College, 2006).Cartoons are a major factor in most kids everyday lives. What are they really learning from them? Cartoons are not the only way kids are seeing violence: movies, toy commercials, and commercials for films are other ways kids witness violent acts. The average child who watches 2 hours of cartoons a day may see nearly 10,000 violent incidents each year, of which the researchers estimate that at least 500 pose a high risk for learning and imitating aggression which can lead to kids being desensitized to violence (Kaiser Foundation, 2003).
A 2001 study by John Murray did a complete brain scan with an MRI on 8 children while they watched violent and non-violent material for 18 minutes. The selection of material was two segments from Rocky 4, two segments of National Geographic animal programs, and Ghostwriter – a children’s mystery program. What they found was that both violent and non-violent segments activated similar parts of the brain, but the violent segments triggered something more within the brain. They have an effect on areas of the brain that effect arousal and attention, detection of a threat, motor programming, and episodic memory encoding and retrieval (Psychiatric Times, 2001). This study is important because it shows that watching violent programs has an effect on the parts of the brain that activates areas that are responsible for the emotional processing of video violence.
Children that watch a lot of violent media are more likely to show aggressive behavior and end up in serious trouble as they get older. In 2003 a study followed 329 children for 15 years and determined that the ones who viewed violent programming where more likely to be convicted of a crime as they got older. It also showed that girls were more susceptible to throwing things at their spouses and boys would be more likely to get violent with their wives. It would seem that children who watch a lot of violent programs have problems that go with them as they come of age. Run - ins with the law, social problems with others, and aggressiveness as a way of dealing with issues. The Rutgers study used several risk factors that lead to aggression and showed that while those factors were present media violence still enhanced the violent behavior of the subjects. By the way, those subjects that were studied were 820 adolescents in Michigan, 430 high school students and 390 juvenile delinquents that were being held in juvenile detention. This would suggest that violent programs potentially had something to do with the 390 juvenile delinquents committing crimes that led to their incarceration and that the 430 students have shown some form of aggression during their teen years.
While proponents of television programs say that there are a smaller number of violent programs on TV, they do not take into account that the number of channels available today increases the amount of programs that are being viewed. The type of violence that we are seeing today is also more explicit. Programs are showing more gore and at earlier times. The number of prime-time programs with violence increased between the years 1994 and 1997, from 53% to 67% on broadcast television (Kaiser Foundation, 2003). Children are exposed to more violence and at times that are usually reserved for the family, around eight o’clock. For example, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a popular show that routinely used violence to destroy vampires. In one 1998 episode Buffy decapitates a demon with a battle ax and his head flies through the air for all to see. In a 2002 episode of Providence, one of the main characters pulls a knife out of a man’s chest. Graphic violence plays an important role in the way that children view the world and how they can react in that world, right or wrong.
Shows that are primarily violence based are the ones that have very high Nielsen ratings, which is why the networks keep making those kinds of programs. CSI and CSI Miami are two programs that receive such ratings and they routinely show decaying corpses, gruesome murders, and horrific crime scenes. The show 24 is strictly based on violence as the show’s theme. It always has numerous violent scenes and shows graphic depictions of the crimes being committed or already committed. These are just a few of the programs being offered by the networks. Possibly the most violent of programming is the professional wrestling programs. A study of fifty episodes of the World Wrestling Federation’s War is Raw program showed that there were numerous acts of violence and sexual interactions. These interactions included kicks to the groin, use of garbage cans, chairs, or tables, crotch grabbing or gesturing to, and many obscene finger gestures. That doesn’t seem so bad until you realize that 15% of the audiences watching the wrestlers doing these things are kids 11 years old or younger. Again, remembering that kids mimic what they see on TV and you can see how wrestling programs can have a negative impact on a child’s behavior.
In conclusion, television programs have become more violent and more children are watching them. There is no doubt that these programs are affecting a percentage of these kids who view them and are exposed to those shows on a daily basis. Children are becoming more aggressive and violent towards whoever causes them a problem. They are mimicking behaviors they are seeing on TV whether or not the behaviors are bad or harmful and they are committing crimes even as they grow into adults. Studies are showing that there is a connection between watching violent media and the way that children are developing more aggressive behaviors. We as a society need to take into account that what we are seeing on TV is having a negative impact on our children and take steps to curb the time kids sit in front of it. Many parents think their children are alright watching these programs because they do not show aggressive or harmful behaviors. However, there is a great likelihood that their children or any one of us may become victims of aggressiveness by the very kids who are being affected by the violent programming. Those kids are the ones in these studies who have gone on to commit crimes while adolescents and as adults. We need to become more proactive in what our kids are viewing and let them know that what is on TV is not always true in real-life. There are real consequences to solving problems with the violence they are witnessing on TV and that there are better ways to deal with the issues they are facing or going to face.
Works Cited
Rutgers University, Rutgers Researcher’s Study Cites Media Violence as ‘Critical Risk Factor’ for Aggressionhttp://news.rutgers.edu/medrel/news-releases/2008/11/rutgers-researcher20-20081118
The Henry James Kaiser Family Foundation, 2003,http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/Key-Facts-TV-Violence.pdf
Kaiser Family Foundation, Kids and Media, The New Millennium, 1999, http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/Kids-Media-The-New-Millennium-Report.pdf
Psychiatric Times, Murray, 2001,http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/54801?pageNumber=2
Cyber College, 2007,http://www.cybercollege.com/violence.htm
BNET, Gale, Centerwall, 1993, 2009, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n111/ai_14152768
RonKaufman, 2004, http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/healtheducation/violencechildren/violencechildren.html
New Science, Motluk, 2002, http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2109-tv-viewing-linked-to-adult-violence.html
My Causal Final Paper Peer Grading From My Peers
Nathan's Causal Final Reviews
Sue I still am not convinced that there is a link between watching television and violent behavior for children. I really enjoyed your paper. Grade A from me.
Causal Final Paper - The Grading for Peer Papers - Earl, Aldajana, and Dylan A
Earl- Paul's Graded Review- Earl's paper expresses how technology (games) can be used to promote healthy attributes in people who play the games. The paper transitions easily from paragraph to paragraph, plus I think Earl supports his thesis very well. The way he describes the games and the amount of effort needed to play them it becomes easy to see how they can get people active and healthier. Earl also explains the benefits of aerobic and anaerobic exercise and how they can positively affect a person's health, body, and mind. The paper also shows how playing video games can increase hand-eye coordination and reading skills, which I never thought about before reading Earl's paper. The conclusion sums up the paper very well. Overall - A.
Aldajana-Paul's Graded Review- Aldijana's paper is well written and researched. Online predators are a major problem in today's society. It amazes that Aldijana shows how far and to what length's these people go to satisfy their warped minds. The paragraphs flow together and the paper is an easy read. I think she backs up her thesis by explaining the types of people who prey on kids, how they are using many different ways to lure these kids in. Sending gifts, money, and even airline tickets so they can come see them is very scary. Her paper also sheds light on some of the warning signs of kids who are at risk of becoming a victim or have already became a victim. These warning signs can be used by parents to monitor and help their kids from falling prey to these predators. Aldijana has even put numbers and links to help parents become more aware and what they should be doing to protect and report online criminal activity. In her conclusion
she says that monitoring computer use and talking to a child about these online predators helps to decrease the child's chances of becoming a victim. Overall - A.
Kevin's Grade
Dylan A- Paul Graded Review- Dylan's paper is easy to read and it has many interesting facts about why the All- Star games aren't that great anymore. I think the paper transitions from each paragraph easily. The paper also supports his thesis by explaining why each of the three major American sport's All-Star games are losing their fan base. It is interesting to see that Major League Baseball and the NBA use different events within their All-Star games to keep them interesting and fresh. I also liked how he described the Pro-Bowl as a vacation for the players, that's probably true. Plus, The NFL hasn't seemed to change it's Pro-Bowl over the years, not adding anything to keep it fresh. You would think that with all the attention the NFL gets during it's regular season that the Pro-Bowl would be spectacular. Overall A.
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