The author Ellis in his article The Consequences of “Carnage as Entertainment” opposes violence in movies and television because he feels that it causes young people to act in a violent manner. In his article he cited several horrific examples where teens and children with guns acted in violent ways to resolve conflicts. Some of the examples provided were Pearle, Mississippi, October 1997, Jonesboro, Arkansas, March 1998, and Springfield, Oregon, May 1998. In each of these cases, children brought weapons to their school and acted in a violent manner. The author cited a trend in television, which depicted more and more violent scenes and then concluded that violence in children was the direct result of increasing violence on TV.
Motion pictures were invented in the early 1900’s and television was invented in the 1930’s. These two inventions revolutionized the way we receive and process the events of the world. With these two inventions, communication and understanding of events have increased
Ellis has not supported his claims against TV violence. Ellis has neither defended nor provided any evidence of his position against TV violence. Ellis has not cited where his information came from. He fails to provide the names of the universities or the names of the professors that did the study. Ellis has not provided information regarding the credentials of the professors. He doesn’t explain who Sissela Bok is or what her qualifications are. Without supporting credentials we cannot accept the writing as a valid argument.
Violence is a part of every day life. There is no escaping its grip. To assume that television is responsible is to make a false supposition. Ellis brought forth evidence by the American Medical Association claiming that television “portrays violence in a way that increases the risk of learning aggressive attitudes.” If this is so then why are people living day in and day out watching TV and have not gone a killing spree? If television affects us in such a negative way why it is not outlawed like narcotics