Wadsworth Handbook Exercise 4

This qualitative study takes a look at the relationship between gangsta rap music and violent behavior because there is little research devoted to this area.

2. There is much discussion as to whether some video games are responsible for aggressive behavior. Many adults want violent video games banned. Write a persuasive paper stating whether you believe that violent video games are responsible for aggressive behavior.

The above article discusses a study conducted that tested whether exposure to rap music increases sexism within males. The study did not give any direct concrete evidence that rap music causes misogyny. Yet it brought up some useful insights that were supported by the study. Initially, they discovered that listening to non-sexist songs still led to some type of sexist behavior. This finding is relevant as it shows that it might not solely be the lyrics that are responsible for sexism within music. People can be instinctively associating rap music with being misogynistic. Another finding was that misogynistic lyrics prime young males to behave sexually aggressive temporarily. This reading is important for this topic as it disregards the popular belief that rap music causes sexism, but it also takes in account that rap music can prime young males to be slightly more aggressive. While this study cannot be used to promote any type of censorship in media, it can still encourage the music industry to reevaluate the material they are launching to public, especially the young generation.

Many believe that rap music has taken a complete 180 in the industry and has turned their lyrics of inspiration and positivity, to drugs and gang violence. Although several signs can point to this statement being true, rap music does not encourage teens to act violently. In fact, many artists/rappers spread positive messages across, giving solutions, and inspiration to the audience.

In “Is video game violence bad” written by Christopher Ferguson. The author proposes there is no correlation between violent video games and real life violence. He lists several studies suggesting violent video games and violence are not linked. Within the first few paragraphs of Fergusons article I noticed the straw man fallacy. This fallacy appears when the author uses terms like “studies show” along with “scholars” without providing citations. The Straw Man fallacy is committed when a writer misrepresents a person's actual position and substitutes a distorted, exaggerated or misrepresented version of that position. To report as though these “scholars” show definitive evidence that there is no link between video games and behaviour is a massive overreach. While the studies themselves are interesting, there is particularly little that can be said about their relevance to real life gaming. Throughout Fergusons article I observed the either/or fallacy. Fergusons argument only makes sense if we assume that the only factor affecting rates of violent crime is video games. However, if we accept that there could be other factors increasing the rate of violent crime, suddenly, the whole argument falls

Like many musical genre before rap, some people believe that rap music influenced teenagers in a negative way that could lead to violence. Some criminals have blamed movies, books, and music as inspiration for their crimes. However, one cannot solely rely on these sources as the main reason for any act whether good or bad. “Millions of heavy metal and gangsta rap fans spend hours with their chosen music genres and never threaten others or themselves. Moreover, most researchers concerned with the causes of suicide and violence point to a broad array of risk factors unrelated to popular culture (e.g., depression, access to guns, substance abuse, etc.) that seem to be precursors of such

The author has committed a few fallacious arguments in the article. One of the fallacies that stood out to me was the fallacy of presumption. It was stated as; people that choose to listen to and watch such material on a regular basis are saying something about their own moral character, about what they value, about who they are. Seeking out such material is like seeking out and choosing to watch portrayals of atrocities, such as rapes and violence. This argument is invalid and unsound. The author is in the wrong for making such statement. Rap music is just like country and rock music. People enjoy listening to different types of music for various reasons, one of which can be for entertainment purposes. Listening to and watching rap music does not determine a person’s moral character and who they are as a person.

Having access to books is very important in college. Generally you are expected to cite at least one in an essay no matter what the course or topic. Problem is, not all of us start our essays in daylight hours and normally if we’ve been procrastinating, we’re stuck at the troubling last minute times which results in either the books we needed being out or us getting the wrong books. Worry no more! That’s where Questia.com comes in! It’s a free online library! Doesn’t eliminate your need for the library for extremely topic specific essays, but it does for that annoying ENG101 class. Featuring over 5,000 books, they range from classical to rare and public domain books. It’s easy to use and even features the citation information on the side! If you really like it and want to eliminate all human contact in your search for academic sources, you can subscribe! With a paid subscription they give you access to over 83,000 books, 10 million (yes, million!) academic

Pornography is a controversial subject all around the world. Part of its appeal is its taboo nature. It has been argued that pornography is harmful. Porn is an underground market that is more or less legal but is it harmful? An article written by Diana E.H. Russell in “Dangerous Relationships: Pornography, Misogyny, and Rape” argues that it is. Diana E.H. Russell is a sociology professor. She has researched the issue and argues that pornography is profoundly harmful. Professor Russell believes that it inclines men to want to rape women and that it encourages them to act out rape fantasies. However, Michael C. Seto disputes Professor Russell's theory that pornography is harmful. Michael Seto's article, written with

Thesis:Rap music does not promote violent actions by teens because rap music is a very diverse genre, it is mainly for entertainment purposes only, and part of the music is involved in anti-violence efforts.

In her article “It’s Easy, but Wrong, to Blame the Music” Rosen writes from parent’s perspective but keeps teenagers and children in mind. She argues that Gansta rap music just reflect the violence, but do not create it. Just because an artist sings about violence, it does not mean that he or she encouraging listeners to perform it. Her key purpose is to make people aware of music instead of making people dislike music because of its bad content of lyrics. She present music as an opportunity for parents to understand their children well through the type of music they listen. She deny the complete censorship of music, because she understand that censorship of music does not prepare children for the real world. This article is interesting and

Music is subjective which means people will often voice their opinions on it, and undoubtedly one of the most controversial genres that has sparked a barrage of disapproval is rap. It is believed and further encouraged by the media that rap music promotes a bad lifestyle. With corruption being apparent around the world it is easy for the media to put the blame on a genre of music that is filled with explicit lyrics about violence, drugs, and rebellious subject matters. However, further investigation will reveal that because of its accurate depiction of reality, and wide variety of categories, rap music does not encourage an unhealthy lifestyle.

Imagine this, it’s the year 2020 and you’re long gone from UC’s campus. You’ve gotten the job you’ve always wanted and finally have a family of your own. You come home from working a 15-hour shift and your three-year-old toddler starts throwing a tantrum about being bored but, your spouse is gone for the time being and only you can entertain the child. What do you do? Do you swallow your pride and play games, read, and or color with him or do you simply turn on the television and let “SpongeBob” take it away? This is a big battle that exists in today’s society. Most people tend to have an opinion that media, specifically television and video games, are having long-term effects on our children concerning their behavior and morals. Others, although typically outnumbered, think that the media does not heavily impact children and most children, if raised with proper care, will know the difference between right and wrong even with media present in their life. In one text, an informative, factual research style paper, the University of Michigan Health System gives insight as to why television may be more harmful than helpful to our youth using raw data from clinical researches. For my second text I have chosen a freehanded, opinion based article, written by a parent who sees nothing wrong with letting his children watch television. These two articles have different insight on the same subject considering it’s discourse community, audience, and style of writing. I’ll begin with the

In recent years, pornography has established itself as perhaps the most controversial topic arising out of the use of the Internet. The easy availability of this type of sexually explicit material has caused a panic among government officials, family groups, religious groups and law enforcement bodies and this panic has been perpetuated in the media.

“Never before in history of telecommunications media in the United States has so much indecent (and obscene material been so easily accessible by so many minors in so many American homes with so few restrictions” (qtd in “Pornography and Child Sexual Abuse”). The problem addressed in the quote by the U.S. Department of Justice is pornography, a 10 billion dollar industry, has made its way from discreet taboo to something that is today considered acceptable and even common. With the internet being such a common tool, it is no surprise that there is easy access to sexually explicit material. The widespread accessibility and usage of pornography has changed people’s outlook on the normality of watching such sexually explicit material, and