Do Video Games Kill Karen Sternheimer Analysis

Great Essays
Video games are known to be played all around the world by various genders and ages. The increasing popularity of the games has led to the common debate of their effects on society’s youth. In the article “Do Video Games Kill?”, Karen Sternheimer sheds light on the impact violent video games have on impressionable minds. She argues that the media has failed to educate the public by providing them with thorough research about the topic. Sternheimer stands with her opinion that video games and violence simply coexist and do not correspond with each other.She uses persuasive techniques such as, statistics, examples, and counter arguments to validate her opinion about violence in games.
Statistics are numbers or facts that provide concrete information and data about a certain topic. This type of persuasive technique allows the writer to form a strong and factual argument that the reader cannot deny. For example, in the article “Do Video Games Kill?”, Sternheimer uses numbers to discuss the aftermath the video game: Doom, “homicide arrest rates fell by 77 percent among
…show more content…
It expresses the view of an individual who disagrees with the author’s position. Counter-arguments influence the audience by making it seem like the author has investigated in the other side of the debate. One of the several hundred studies that asked whether exposure to media violence leads to involvement in actual violence resulted in this, “Television had led to more than 10,000 murderers in the United States and Canada… many other media-effects studies rely on correlation analysis, often finding links between exposure to media violence and aggressive behavior” (Sternheimer, 2007). This opposition quote shows that Sternheimer is an author that weighs alternatives before forming an opinion. As the explanation of the quote goes on she clarifies that the studies do not have any factual information. Sternheimer quotes

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    He also gives only one example of a movie influencing a shooter and no examples of a television show influencing a shooter; he mentions The Walking Dead as a violent television show but does not give an example of it influencing a shooter (122-125, 149). Compared to the millions of people who play video games, seven instances…

    • 1298 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Secondly, Sternheimer brings in research to further prove her argument, by claiming research shows that video games are actually helpful, and do not cause violent behavior. Sternheimer claims that any speculation of aggression correlating to violent media is incidental, and from the research of psychologist, Jonathan Freedman, violent media such as video games produced results that were, "inconsistent or even contradicts the claim that exposure to media violence causes…

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Argumentative Summary

    • 1719 Words
    • 7 Pages

    With games like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty becoming some of the best selling series in the video game industry; selling around over 250 million copies, (McWhertor, 2016; United States Security and Exchange Commission, 2016) people wonder how much impact video games have on in our society and how much influence they have on our behavior. A controversial topic that arose in 2005 in the American Psychological Association is whether or not violent video games leads to increased and more severe violent behaviors (American Psychological Association, 2005). We understand that one form of developing behavior is by observing the consequences of people’s actions. (Bandura, 1963).…

    • 1719 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He gives us a meta-analytic to talk the positive effects of video games that is not often discussed when conducting research. In order to prove his point, he researched to find articles that had publication bias through different publications. He proved that there was little to no relationship between violent behavior and video games. He found that it actually helps kids and teens with their visuospatial cognition. He found that publication bias are a big problem for this subject because it had already had the mindset that video games were bad and dangerous, These results may change the minds of some people when it comes to this…

    • 948 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This shows that out of the 50 million players only a few are committing crimes and that it could be a coincidence. Carll argues that there is a subgroup of vulnerable individuals that might commit crimes after playing violent video games, however, would those individuals commit a crime without video games if they are already vulnerable? Violent video games are good for the clear majority of players and have great benefits such as stress relief, friendship, and kindness. Crime is inevitable and is in every society. According to government statistics youth violence is in its lowest in 40 years (Youth).…

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Analysis of "Do Video Games Kill?" Video games and homicidal crimes. Two subjects that many people view as having a direct correlation with one another, due to the common, yet mistaken, belief that the playing of violent video games leads to the commit of brutal acts, which is in this case, homicide. Karen Sternheimer addresses this issue in her article "Do Video Games Kill?", contrasting the frequent theory suggesting video games inspire killing by using evidence which includes quotes from recognizable sources, reports on research and studies, and statistics. Instead of putting a way of entertainment to blame for why such atrocities are executed, deeper research into aspects of the killer's life should be conducted, which is the position which Sternheimer provides evidence upon.…

    • 758 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In an article published by TIME an Associate Professor and Chair of Psychology at Stetson University, Christopher Ferguson, weighs in on how poorly research has been done, “Quite simply the research just hasn’t panned out… it has been increasingly recognized that much of the early research on violent video games linking them to increased aggression was problematic: most studies used outcome measures that had nothing to do with real-life aggression and failed to control carefully for other important variables such as family violence, mental health issues or even gender in many studies (boys play more violent video games and are more aggressive).” Another shot at how bad experiments “proving” that violent media leads to real world behavior was in a Supreme Court case, Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, where Edmund G. Brown was fighting to remove the restriction of the sale or rental of video games to minors in California. In this court case Brown completely destroyed Anderson’s experiments saying that the California nor any psychologists, including Anderson can provide any link between violence in video games and harm to minors. He went on to scrutinize how the experiments were done saying that the studies have been rejected by every court to consider them and that all experiments that “proved” violence in video games cause real world violence has been made purely on correlation and not causation, he then went on to show how flawed the methodology of the experiments were. Edmund G. Brown won his court case, overturning the Californian law that restricted sale and rental to a minor, with the United States Supreme Court ruling in a 7-2…

    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ultimate Violence Simulator In no other period of time has there been such exposure to violence as there is today. The world has, long before been consumed by such hatred and acrimony however, it was never praised to children and young ones for the sheer fun of it, but rather to protect something they loved and cared for. Over the decades, human society has begun to expose more violent media to the young masses with acts of entertainment such as movies and TV shows, but within the last few decades the rise of an interactive violence media known as video games has ascended to the public.…

    • 1164 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The adverse effects from violent media on youth have long vexed the American public. For decades, scholars studied the impact that TV and film violence had on children, and concluded that high exposure to televised violence may lead to an increase in aggressive behaviors and desensitization (Eron, Huesmann, Lefkowitz, & Walder, 1972; Josephson, 1987; Huesmann, Moise-Titus, Podolski, & Eron, 2003). However, technological advancements in the video game industry changed the media landscape, and it was expected that video game violence would have similar, possibly greater, effects on youth as TV and film; thus, video games that stimulated aggressive attitudes, feelings, and behaviors in children were of specific concern. Video games have become…

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gerard Jones, “Violent Media Is Good for Kids” seems to be an argumentative article on what kind of media provides a positive perspective for children. Throughout the article, Jones uses his childhood to describe how it has influenced him to be more confident. Jones also conducted an experiment on a group of kids who have dealt with hardships in their childhood and helped them to express their negativity through fiction. To further his belief, Jones continued an encouraging and open-minded tone throughout his article. He willingly conducted research with the intention to help children and to demonstrate the rationalization behind his argument all while maintaining neutrality to his opinion.…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Call Of Violence Analysis

    • 1164 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Christopher Ferguson, a professor of Clinical Psychology, supports those who opposed the APA’s recommendation. He feels that there is not enough evidence pointing to the fact that violent video games have a negative effects,…

    • 1164 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The article “Violent Media is Good for Kids” by Gerard Jones is very convincing. Jones argument goes against the majority of societies opinions. Jones article first appeared on Mother Jones, which targeted many parents and their opinions on weather or not they agreed with showing their child media violence. Jones believes that media violence is not harmful for children, it is helpful. Jones also believes that when children see and use violent media it is helping them in a positive way so children meet their emotional and developmental needs.…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Video Games Do Not Cause Violent Behavior Over the years there have been several incidents that have stirred up the emotions of people, parents and especially investigators. These incidents include the Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting, the Columbine Massacre, and the incident in Colorado where a man went on a shooting spree in an Aurora movie theater. There was one key thing that aroused people’s emotions connected by investigators to all three incidents: video games. This led to the belief that if the parents’ children play violent video games that the child will become violent. Even though people have been led to believe that video games cause people to become cruel and commit violent actions, video games do not cause people to commit acts of violence because they don 't have time to…

    • 1737 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The most common idea that was broadcasted consistently by the media about video games is that video games is the cause of violence. The media believe that people have difficulty to distinguish between real and fictional violent action. And yet, in a thought…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Thom) This excerpt by Gillespie is a great example of how the media over exaggerates the adverse impact of video games on violence in society. Additionally, in Gillespie’s excerpt where he quotes the “expert” he provides no evidence for his position. The media neglects to report other key factors that may have contributed to the crime. “The obvious variable is that there are about 270,000,000 guns running freely through the U.S.” (Gillespie Thom)…

    • 1404 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays