The Appeal of Media Violence in a FullLength Motion Picture by Sparks, Sherry, and Lubsen - Assignment Example

Critical Analysis Professor (Tutor) The Name of the School (University) The City and State Date Critical Analysis Title Sparks, Glenn, Sherry, John & Lubsen, Graig 2005, ‘The appeal of media violence in a full‐length motion picture: An experimental investigation’, Communication Reports, vol. 18 no. 1, pp. 21-30. Goldstein, Jeffrey, 1999, ‘The Attractions of Violent Entertainment’, Media Psychology, vol. 1 no.3, pp. 271-282. Topic The following paper is a critical analysis into the debate surrounding attraction to violence in the media. Basically the main questions in the debate include what is the attraction in the media? and why are human beings drawn to violence in the media? Context Goldstein’s article fits into the social psychology field of academics. The article is published in the Media Psychology journal and covers the subjects of violence in the mass media as well as investigates on audiences in the mass media. The article has also been cited and used widely in different academic fields and disciplines. This includes its application in mass media, communications, and social psychology. It can be applied in understanding psychological behaviors and attitudes in society. Moreover, it can help understand the psychology behind mass media such as how people react or their attitudes towards numerous aspects as audiences. It can also feature in the context of communication studies to understand how people use different themes to communicate. The second article focuses on communication as the main academic field. It is published in the Communication Reports Journal and features numerous subjects including motion pictures, theater, mass media, perception, and college students. Nonetheless, the article can be applied in social psychology to understand issues such as media violence and its influence among college students. Moreover, it also falls into the context of mass media studies where a great deal of information can be drawn on aspects such as entertainment and enjoyment of motion pictures with different themes. Structure Goldstein begins his article with an abstract that summarizes what it will feature. The abstract offers all areas the article will consider. Goldstein then proceeds to the introduction, where he begins with a though-provoking reference to an old newspaper report that suggested how a young burglar confessed to getting inspiration of crime and violence from a novel. The article then follows to as the question how attractive is it? (Goldstein 1999, p. 276). This section is an analysis that relies on evidence and personal points of the author. The article then proceeds to analyze violence in the media through numerous contexts or topics including the audiences for violent imagery, why people watch violence, social identity and violence, excitement and sensation seeking, the importance of context, and violent images as part of social control. The last topic concludes the author’s discussion with a restatement of his main arguments. Sparks, Sherry & Lubsen, (2005) article begins with a brief abstract that highlights the main points of the study. The second part involves an introduction that dwells on literature to review previous studies related to the current research. The article then proceeds to offer the methodology including an overview, respondents, procedure, and measurements. Sparks, Sherry & Lubsen, (2005) then continue to analyze the results of the study a discussion of the results, and concluding remarks. Style Sparks, Sherry & Lubsen, (2005) use a clear and formal style. The language is concise and formal with a clear sense of clarity. Based on the requirements of a research or study, the paper has taken into account the need to use clear sentences and explanations. Goldstein’s article also offers clear, but verbose style. Although the article is not an academic scientific study, it offers the use of formal language. This enables increased clarity for the intended audiences. Argument Sparks, Sherry & Lubsen, (2005, p. 28) main argument is that violence in the media tends to create emotional arousals that people find pleasurable and develop the need for entertainment. The author believes that violent images in the media arouse people’s senses that are considered much easier or intense to handle than real-life violent situations. Nonetheless, people tend to be attracted to violence in the media not for a known universal reason, but different circumstances. These circumstances include social context, enjoyment, entertainment, audience, among others. The article argues that through the research, no significant differences were noted in terms of differences in enjoyment the same motion picture, but one containing violent scenes and the other with no violent scenes. Evidence Sparks, Sherry & Lubsen, (2005, p. 29) use a wide array of evidence from across literature. One of the main contributors is Joanne Cantor who delivers a solid contribution by researching the charm of kids to violence on television. Her arguments are based on two large surveys piloted in Wisconsin that included children as respondents in one survey and parents as participants in the other survey. Canton links the research results with media related literature to offer a concrete answer to some of the boggling question. In general, she argues that children illustrate a concise preference for family-focused situation comedies on television (Cantor 1998, p 113). She concludes that researchers require increased insights into what attracts audiences to non-violent genres of media (Cantor 1998, p 114). This places a significant point in this article offering a differentiated, but though-provoking insight. Moreover, the article also relies on evidence from Dolf Zillmann, which offers an in-depth and convincing argument to understanding why people are attracted to violence in the media. However, some of the arguments supported by Zillmann do not illustrate any plausible evidence or even the ability to be tested in a scientific research (Zillmann 1998, p 185). Even so, some of the arguments made are well-established in terms of reasoning. Zillmann concludes by indicating that ‘There is no single quality of violence or a single circumstance in the exposure to its depiction that could adequately explain the apparent attraction of the portrayals in question’ (Zillmann 1998, p 185). The reliance on this evidence by the article offers a wider concept and foundation for debate. Nonetheless, it seems confusing through the establishment of numerous arguments drawn from sources do not specifically support their evidence through scientific studies. Nonetheless, from this differentiated approach, Goldstein (1999, p.279) illustrates a sharp departure from the rest of research in violence and its attractiveness. This offers increased conviction for the points made in the article. Nonetheless, the number of participants in the article illustrates a poor representation of the sample population. Moreover, the lack of determining the age or how such factors play a role in violence attractiveness only questions the evidence. The overall evidence presented is supported by literature review and the use of survey from college students watching the same movie but with and without violent scenes. This may represent a limited survey window based on that it concentrates on a motion picture. Nonetheless, the evidence presented offers significant insights based on the use of statistics as other studies have not been able to apply this in their evidence. Evaluation Sparks, Sherry & Lubsen, (2005, p. 30) present a compelling case, but the overall results of the study do not contribute much to the field of psychology or the communication field. This is based on the idea of the initial findings that does not offer much facts or evidence to support future research of application in these fields. The main strength of the article is based on the ability to prove what has already been proven by others in different fields. Moreover, the evidence presented is justifiable through the use of statistical analysis. However, the reliability of the data and analysis methods can still be questioned. This is based on the idea that the main effects being measures, which is enjoyment do not really apply as quantitative data. Nonetheless, the article only manages to illustrate the already proven complex idea of understanding people are attracted to violence in the media. The main weakness of the article is the limited focus on college students and the aspect of enjoyment. Although numerous aspects were measured such as suspense, it failed to review what made the participants attracted to non-violent scenes. Furthermore, the research also fails to identify the focus of different types of media where violence can be depicted. The focus on a motion picture does not offer effective or comprehensive insight into the main issue at hand. The paper would benefit from focusing on different types of media such as pictures, cartoons, and music. Another way it would be strengthened is using a qualitative methodology to analyze data. More development of the enjoyment variable would improve insights into what emotions audiences experience during violent scenes. Conclusion The following paper has critically reviewed Sparks, Sherry & Lubsen, (2005) article that presents a study on why people are attracted to violence in the media. The authors maintain that enjoyment cannot be considered as an explanation to why people are attracted to violence in the media. The author draws on increased evidence that helps develop a compelling case. However, the article requires increased improvement from a wider focus on different media and variables that can better explain attractiveness of violence in the media. Overall, the article does not contribute much to the already known knowledge and research into violence and its popularity in the media. References Cantor, Joanne 1998, Children's attraction to violent television programming, Oxford University Press, New York. Goldstein, Jeffrey, 1999, ‘The Attractions of Violent Entertainment’, Media Psychology, vol. 1 no.3, pp. 271-282. Sparks, Glenn, Sherry, John & Lubsen, Graig 2005, ‘The appeal of media violence in a full‐length motion picture: An experimental investigation’, Communication Reports, vol. 18 no. 1, pp. 21-30. Zillmann, Dolf 1998, The psychology of the appeal of portrayals of violence, Oxford University Press, New York. Read More