Week 8 Readings

Good evening guys! Sorry for posting so late, I’ve been busy studying and reading for midterm stuff.

This week’s readings were really interesting. I really appreciated Sternheimer’s in-depth look as to why research on media violence is not that valuable or truthful. I also found the connections between media violence and real violence interesting. Both Sternheimer and the Levin article mentioned the environmental factors that contribute to violent behavior, such as poverty, community, and neighborhood violence.  Sternheimer also mentioned that racial inequality plays a part in violence. I did appreciate Sternheimer’s emphasis on the fact that violence has gone down and that media does not play a major role in violent acts. I wish the media (news and the like) would stop taking this angle and construing both research and actual crimes as though television and video games are to blame. It sends a bad message to the rest of society and makes everyone extremely paranoid, when in actuality, issues are really related to behavior and environment.

The Levin article was interesting to me as a future teacher. Although I want to teach high school, the section about how children play was fascinating. I never thought about the difference between types of play (imitative and restrictive) and how different types of toys can actually promote types of play.

Did these articles change your thinking about media and its relation to violence? Did you agree or disagree with the authors?