Briell Stone

My topic: How violence in the media affects children. I

I want to include all types of media(news, movies, shows, commericals, music and video games). I was also wondering about certain children's toys like swords and toy guns. I feel like though they aren't part of the media, they still introduce children to violence as a young age.

I don't really want to get into the physical aspects, like how it affects the brain, but more how the media portrays violence in a way that children are more apt to become violent. I know there have been numerous studies on this topic so I will include these in my paper.

I remember you telling me this topic and thinking, "Wow, that sounds like a really interesting topic to explore." I kind of considered it at one point..haha

I have no idea how long this paper is supposed to be, but maybe you could do a paragraph for each topic (or maybe condense them together, because there is a lot you could cover..) maybe link shows/commercials/video games/children's toys together somehow? and focus on maybe on example for each. Actually that whole category could make a paper in itself. Maybe you could focus on three or four you're really passionate about to rule out, to condense the paper more (there's a lot to say for each.) Six/seven topics is a lot to explore in a paper.

And while you mention not neurology, psychology definitely comes to mind for me when I read your explanation...I'm sure there's a lot of research being done on the psychological effects on kids from media.

I think that this is a good idea because people are always discussing how violent the media is now.

The only concern I have is that covering all the different types of media might be too broad. Mr. Cooksey was really concerned about depth in the last paper, so maybe if you just focused on just a couple aspects of the media then it would be a lot more "deep".

I really like the idea though and perhaps you could do some research and look at older commercials or whatever media you choose (primary sources) and talk about the differences between those and the modern media.

Maybe you could even look at the rating guidelines for movies and video games to see if those have changed in order to accommodate the changing media.

I really like your idea about the media world affecting children. My question would be that with the increase of better graphics and more "realistic" games and movies is it possible that children are just used to violence as it has become part of everyday life? It's just an idea but it seems like our current society has become almost numb to violence.

Veda has a good point that I might find this a bit broad -- I do. My other concern is that it doesn't really have a connection to Millennial issues. But maybe that's part of the solution -- focusing on how these issues have evolved with a new generation, and maybe particularly focusing on how these questions connect with parenting. Seems to me that kids are viewing violent content at much younger ages than in the past. I wonder what experts have to say about this development.

It might also be useful to focus on specific content -- either video games or movies or TV rather than all three.

Give it some thought and get back to me as you begin your research. I think you'll find that there's a ton of material, and hopefully you find a way to get narrower....

A little thing that connects to violence in media millenial children watch/participate in is ratings. PG13 isn't what it used to be... maybe comparing older movies and newer ones for ratings and the amount of violence in them? This probably doesn't have a whole paper's worth of research to go with it though.... its just a thought...