Jones Violent Media

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Evaluation of Jones’ Persuasion Techniques The essay, “Violent media is good for kids”, written by Gerard Jones, was first published in Mother Jones magazine in the year 2000, and nearly two decades later, this subject is still relevant today. Jones is author of violent media himself, as he has written many books for Marvel Comics. The essay argues that violent media is good for kids, which is also Jones’ thesis. To support his thesis, Jones discusses several arguments, such as his personal experience with violent media, as well as his son’s use of superheroes to overcome fears and other overwhelming emotions. Jones also references to authority to back his theory and assert the necessity of violent media as an outlet for overcoming emotional…show more content…
His first argument is his personal story which talks about his discovery of Marvel Comics and the Hulk, who freed the spirit suffocating under a nice-boy persona. Then, he follows with his son’s story, who uses superheroes to power through fear and social competition. Along the same lines, Jones introduces examples from his project Power Play, that involves cases in which violent stories are used as a therapeutic medium to work through emotional stress. Jones’ only reference to authority is Melanie Moore, who helped jones develop Power Play. In paragraph ten Jones writes, “We’ve found that every aspect of even the trashiest pop-culture story can have its own developmental function.” He uses the word “we” without specifying his role in these findings, or who else was involved, or the description of the process of how “they” arrived at this conclusion. Jones never discusses the nature of the research however, he mentions the favorable “findings” to prove that violent media is good for kids. Jones does not appear to confuse facts with opinions, but he seems to confuse empirical information to a few anecdotal situations. The absence of specific reference work in such findings turn Jones’ argument into a blanket statement. Because the majority of arguments Jones presents in this essay are based on his few life experiences, they do…show more content…
He discusses briefly that many pop-psychologists insist that violent media is harmful to kids, but he does not consider the truth their words may be bearing. Instead, Jones dismisses the concern pop-psychologists have and responds by citing Ph.D. psychologist Melanie Moore, who just like him, shares the same philosophy that children use violent media to meet their developmental needs. In paragraph fifteen Jones makes note that he is aware of the negative impact violent media holds, because it has inspired some people to real life violence, but he does not go into further details other than this statement, “it’s helped hundreds for every one it’s hurt.” He does not take the time persuade the reader that the opposition is wrong, and perhaps make use of hard facts. By explicitly saying that he will not explore the counter argument means that he already knows that going there will be the death of his argument. Because it is a complex argument, it needs to be dissected further than Jones has, and for effective persuasion, a brief comment on the opposing argument, is not enough. By using this approach in writing, Jones risks of being regarded as
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