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Reality Bytes Henry Jenkins Analysis

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Some people consider videogames a waste of time. They say they are bad for kids, not

educational, or socially isolating. Henry Jenkins, the director of the Comparative Media Studies

Program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has a broad experience and has done a lot of

research in the video game industry. In his article, “Reality Bytes”, Henry Jenkins argues in

favor of video games by using the rhetorical strategies of appeal to the authority, appealing to

societal values and creating a credible ethos and appeal to the opposition.

Jenkins counters stereotypes or common assumptions of the public using one strategy,

appeal to authority. People believe that one of the causes youth aggression are because of video

games. Henry …show more content…

But young people in general are more likely to be

gamers” (Henry Jenkins, 449). Then he adds, “The overwhelming majority of kids who play

[video games] do NOT commit [such] antisocial acts” (Henry Jenkins, 449). Using the strategy

appealing to the opposition he agrees with it to a certain point, but then he states it is just a

minority of kids who commit such acts. This means that rate of youth aggression rate is very low

making it a logical reason to support this strategy. Another myth that Jenkins debunks is the

public’s opinion on “almost no girls play computer games”, he agrees that it is true until the past

decade. He says, “efforts were made in the mid-90s to build games that appealed to girls” (Henry

Jenkins, 450). As an example, he mentions the game “The Sims” a web-based game, that has

captured many women’s interests who had never played a game before.

All in all, using some of the rhetorical strategies to write this article, Henry Jenkins tries

to change the people’s perspective about video games. Even though he acknowledges some of

the public’s opinion, he supports his explanations with appeal to the authority, appeal to the

opposition and appealing to societal values and creating a credible

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