3 Article Summaries

Paragraph 1: Columbine: Whose Fault Is It?

I think that the main idea of this article is that violence, especially killing, should not be acceptable anywhere or under any circumstance. Marilyn Manson is a firm believer that the media does not care about the deaths of young children, or the deaths of soldiers who are fighting for our country, they only care about the media part and catching every moment of what happened in each situation, just so they can put it in their news report. Manson used evidence such as examples of the school shooting in Colorado, the “civil” war, and the McDonald’s shooting. In this article, it made me realize how the media portrays death and killing as something much smaller than it truly is. I agree with Manson when he said that killing should not be tolerated anywhere. I also liked as he used the bible as a reference, and I agree with him about that. The line that Manson wrote that is closest to my own beliefs is when he said that if you give a child a car or a gun, why are they not responsible when something bad happens involving them with that car or gun? I think it is very important that everyone should be responsible for his or her own actions, no matter how old you are. My beliefs or understanding of this topic did not change, mainly because I agree with Manson and I agree with what his main point of this essay is; violence and killing shouldn’t be tolerated anywhere.

Paragraph 2: Weinstein, Tarantino, and the Standoff Over Movie Violence

The main idea of this article is very similar as the “Whose Fault Is It” article; in the way that both articles are stating that violence is wrong no matter what. To me, this article was a tad bit more difficult to follow. I understood the main argument, and I agree with it. The author of this article used evidence in the example of violence Weinstein’s movies, TV shows, and even video games. This article stresses that the comment Weinstein made to the media about violence is true. I liked how the author used Ferguson as a reference of being “overly friendly to entertainment.” The part of this article that I looked at as closest to my own belief is that there is a fine line between media violence and actual violence. I believe that the media way over exaggerates every situation to make it much bigger than what it needs to be. My understanding of this topic did briefly change from the beginning of this article to the end, because I began to understand it more and was able to connect it to the 1^st article that I read.

Paragraph 3: Violent Video Games, The Effects on Youth, and Public Policy Implications

The main point in this article is that many parents of young children are very oblivious of the fact that many of the video games and TV programs that their children are watching/playing are extremely violent.  Most parents stress that they do not want any violence to occur in the household, or that fighting at school in inappropriate, but they do not stop their children from playing violent video games and killing people on TV. The author used many evidence in examples of other books explaining that video games should be rated, and customers buying these video games should be able to understand what the rating scale is. The issue now is will these parents look at the ratings? And will it even affect their decision about weather or not they will let their child play the game? I believe that this essay was very convincing and well worded. It made me realize how much of an issue it is that younger kids are being exposed to gruesome fighting and killing. One thing that I learned from this essay is that video games are rated, just like movies are. I did not know that there was a scale rating each video game. In conclusion, I think that the best author was Marilyn Monson. I believe that all 3 of these articles had the same main focus, but I believe that he said his beliefs the best and his article was most interesting to read.