Category: Society

Speaking the truth is something a lot of society doesn’t do. People tell lies, spread rumors, and gossip. In this case, this was happening to Starr’s friend Khaili, and even to her. She was the only witness at his death, and couldn’t bare what was being said about him after his death, so she did something about it.

Who is Starr Carter? Well, Starr Carter is an amazing young woman who made such a big impact on her community. She’s just your normal, typical, teenage girl, who lives in the black neighborhood her father grew up in, known as Garden Heights. Her parents did not want her going to the school in their neighborhood, so they sent her to Williamson Prep, an almost all-white school. Throughout the novel, Starr’s character development is constantly changing. At the beginning of the novel, her best friend, Khalil, gets shot and killed by a white officer for doing nothing wrong. She was the only witness and was deeply traumatized. She’s too scared to speak up as the witness because of what other people would think of her, and what King, the biggest drug dealer in their neighborhood, would do to her and her family. Starr’s scared King will hurt her family, but her family and Ms.Ofrah encourage her to speak up and when she feels she’s ready to. Starr speaks to police as the witness and then goes to the grand jury to get justice for Khalil, but Officer Cruise doesn’t get arrested. Starr’s mom grabs her hand and “Looked [her] in the eye, and said, ‘Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right.’”(Thomas 154) This is her way of saying that Starr made the right choice when she went to the police and told them what happened the night of Khalil’s death, whether Officer Cruise was going to get arrested or not, she at least tried. After what happened to Khalil, Starr wants Ms.Ofrah to know that she couldn’t do anything about her friend Natasha’s death because of how young she was, but now that she’s older and braver, she wants to have that chance to do something and to make a change for Khalil. Starr says to Ms. Ofrah while they’re where Ms.Ofrah works, ‟I’ve tried to forget it, but I remember everything. The shots, the look on Natasha’s face. They never caught the person who did it. I guess it didn’t matter enough. But it did matter.” Starr looks at Ms. Ofrah with tears in her eyes, “And I want everyone to know that Khalil mattered too” (Thomas 219).

Between what Starr’s family and friends are telling her to do, she doesn’t know how to approach this situation. When Kenya finds out that Starr was a witness and she wasn’t coming forward she says to her, “I’m just saying, Starr. If I could change what happens at my house with my momma and daddy, I would. Here you are, with a chance to help change what happens in our whole neighborhood, and you staying quiet. Like a coward” (Thomas 198). When Kenya tells this to her, this makes her think that she has to speak out. What she says gets to her, and makes her realize that she has to speak out. When Maverick and Starr speak with each other, Maverick says to Starr, “Exactly. You and your brothers are something to live for and something to die for, and I’ll do whatever I gotta do to protect.” ‘He kissed my forehead.’ “If you’re ready to talk, baby, talk. I got your back” (Thomas 200). Whenever someone we love helps us through something, it makes it easier to get through it.

Tony Blair says, “Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing.” In this case, Starr did the right thing. She went to the police and came forth as the witness. She also went to the grand jury, which took a lot for her to do. She wanted people to know that she cares for this movement. She wants justice, and she wants change. Starr wanted to set Khalil’s story straight. Rumors were going around about how Khalil was this big drug dealer, gang banger, and a thug. They had it all wrong. No one chooses to do something like this. He felt he had to do it for the money, to support himself and his family. Starr thinks to herself about what DeVante was telling her and thinks, “Devante. Khalil. Neither one of them thought they had much of a choice. If I were them, I’m not sure I’d make a much better one” (Thoms 239). DeVante had to do it because his family couldn’t make money to survive. DeVante tells Starr, “Like I said, nobody likes selling drugs, I hated that shit. For real. But I hated seeing my momma and sisters go hungry, you know?’ Starr says to Khalil, ‘I don’t know. I’ve never had to know. My parents made sure of that” (Thomas 238). This is exactly what her parents tried to protect her from, this is also why they wanted her to go to Williamson Prep, and not the Garden Heights school. Her mom works day and night to provide for their family so their kids would never have to deal with what other families have to.

In society, people don’t speak up. Sometimes they don’t tell us things. Truth is that, if we don’t tell each other what’s going on, rumors spread, things get worse, and friendships get ruined. We have to speak up. Tell the right story, and make things right. Sometimes speaking up can be hard, you can risk things, you could ruin things. Or you could take that risk to make things right and to make a difference, in this case, Starr made a difference in her community. She knew what was at risk, but she had the bravery and support from her family to take that risk.

Vampires have been around for generations that there are a variety of forms of these immortal creatures with each culture having their own version. In the past, vampires have reflected the fear and things perceived as taboo in those cultures. Originally, vampires were first known to be savages and blood-thirsty. They were also representation of the unknown consequences of actions performed by the people. In the old folklores, they were supposedly terrorizing the communities and were always to blame for anything that the people could not explain. Then when the vampire genre had spread to the west, our American culture had given vampirism a new image to where we have come to fantasize the human ideal. Eventually, the genre had become a source of entertainment, where it is marketed towards the young adults.

These vampires have evolved so much that we can divide them into two different types of vampires: the “old” and the “new”. The “old” version would be the stereotypical vampire who live in dark castles and are ruthless when it comes to their feeding. As for the “new” version of vampires, they are more understanding of the human race and are more adaptive and interactive with their environment. So as the genre approaches the twenty-first century, altercations in the portrayal of vampires has changed due to more exploration with the idea of otherness and fear, our culture fantasizing over characteristics of a vampire to a more human desire, and removing properties that make them a monstrous, which allows them to move from evil to good. In the old versions of vampirism, vampires embodied the fears in the culture in that time period.

An example of an “old version” vampire would be Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Count Dracula is depicted as an inhumane creature who cause destructions in society by feeding upon people for their blood. Dracula reveals the fears of the Victorian Era which includes animal nature and sexuality. As stated by Count Dracula himself, “How dare you touch him? How dare you cast your eyes on him when I had forbidden it? . . . This man belongs to me! Beware how you meddle with him” (200). Count does nothing but for self-interest. And so, he forbid the women from seducing Jonathan Harker in order for Count to have Harker all to himself for his desire. The three women vampires represent the consequences of sexual greed and how these were the not the behavior of Victorian women. As Stoker was creating this story in the 1890s, he added typical elements of vampire folklore and the current ideas of vampirism to create the character Count Dracula.

Due to the similarities of his vampire, Count Dracula, to old folklore vampires, Stoker made it believable that these creatures could exist and so the story of vampires with these typical traits were passed on. In today’s version of vampires, as seen in Twilight, they represent the modern reinvention of vampires. Differing from other folklore vampires, the Cullen family had adopted a lifestyle in which they can live and be involved in the human society. Instead of living in the stereotypical castle, Edward and his family live in an upper-middle class home where they planned to stay as long as they can without revealing their inhuman nature. For other vampires, such as Dracula, they were more nomadic due to their inability to adapt to their environment. According to Civilized Vampires Versus Savage Werewolves by Natalie Wilson she described how the Cullens are adapting to the human society by “having high culture tastes towards classical music, art, and fashion. . . being an asset to the community and attending a local high school.” (233). When the Cullen children attend their local school, they acted in the conventional norms. Their self-control makes them more of a humanistic vampire, giving them a more heroic character type. This is critical to the vampire and human interaction because how unique it is from the vampire and human interactions of the old vampire literature.

Obviously, Carlise Cullen, Edward’s father, is a little too old to be attending a high school, but he gets involved with the human society in another way. He is a doctor which means he is important to the society. The significance of this is that he is completely trusted given that he is surrounded by blood daily. But that doesn’t bother him because his family chooses to live as “vegetarians” meaning that humans are not part of their diet. This distances them from the old stereotypical vampires whose food source was anything that had blood. The family’s understanding of the human population is very different from their ancestors, typically because vampires were careless about the lives that they had taken, but now, modern vampires are more conscious about their decision in killing their victims. These modern vampires are socially progressive compared to their ancestors that they detach themselves from their monstrous origins. As our society begins to change their perspective about vampires, zombies have taken their place as the creatures we now fear. We feared vampires because of their monstrous actions, but now since they are civilized, we strip away those monstrous traits to make them more appealing. But for zombies, they are always going to be our enemy. According to Vampire Gentlemen and Zombie Beast by Angela Tenga and Elizabeth Zimmermen, they stated that “As vampires have become holders of human social codes, they connote social and political stability. . . Zombies threaten stability and security” (78).

This means that because zombies are unconscious, it’s difficult for them to connect with us. Due to the media depicting zombies as only these mindless walking bodies striving for flesh, the portrayal of these creatures isn’t going to change much. As for the vampires in the media, they are going to be continually glorified. Entertainment industries have been transforming vampires into fantasies that teenage girls drool over while being mesmerize by their flawless body and the vampire’s ability to control their actions creates a more desire to be one of them. Although desiring to be a vampire seems like a fantasy, the idea around everlasting youth had teenagers get procedures done (79). This cultural anxiety was addressed in the Twilight series when Bella feared of ageing but that was resolved when she transformed into a vampire. But this isn’t a big of a fear as what the zombie is a reminder of: “eternity in a corrupt body” (79). Our technology could only advance so much that, it can’t promise us a peaceful afterlife, in which this case it would be being imprisoned in your own body for eternity. But we cannot depict the future of zombies just yet, trends could change and there is only a matter of time before there could be another creature that could be on the rise. Vampire media have been exposed to the public for almost two-hundred years because of the way cultures have been reinventing their portrayal of a vampire. This constant evolution of the vampire genre has kept the stories from going bland. As our American culture focus more on the aspects of beauty and romance of the vampires, the horror aspect has been thrown out. Our culture has changed so much that our interest have changed in a way that we like to look more on the meaningful side than just the frightful side. Even though we throw out these wicked traits the once belong to the first ancestors of vampires, we would always retain their stereotypical characteristics that had been left from Dracula as the “original” vampire.

Theatre as a Mirror of Human Existence and Its Evolution

“A drama is considered to be all-inclusive. It embraces all types of topics and represents all kinds of natures, as it is intended for all classes of people”. Thus, it is a mirror of human existence intended to be presented on the stage. But as Victor Hugo says, ‘If the mirror is an ordinary one, it produces a poor, faithful but colorless image; it must therefore be a focusing mirror.’(Ramamurti, 1964). Theatre comes in varied forms that have impacted the globe immensely through time and space. Drama principles to spread joy primarily, that advance in the direction of the entertainment purpose in society, however, the theatre has also established itself, over time in belief to persuade or influence audiences, that impact a specific or entire set of people. Theatre has also initiated and acted as a way of communication throughout the world, from varying social and cultural groups around the world, the theatre has been the route of communication. Theatre has evolved most people, theatre is another reason for our globe to undergo globalization and maintain the steady rate of advancements in most fields, a few that are not even related to arts, because art and theatre have the power to change the world, as art is so broad, each aspect of life can fit into the field of art, by its ability and potential to impact every individual and society. Theatre has thrived to spread awareness regarding particular problems our globe faces or impacts individuals and societies to alter specific problems in our world or enhance self-knowledge and understanding. “Theatre and the performing arts teach society about itself, hoping to point out the attitudes and mindsets of current society”.

Theatre’s Role in Education, Awareness, and Social Influence

Theatre acts as a tool used to educate people about their current conditions. Theatre is said to be one of the most influencing and impacting art forms, by the virtue of real people playing various roles in the picture to raise awareness, bring about change, or impact society. Theatre is known for bringing out more impact as it leads to the audiences feeling empathy, they do not just feel the specific mood of the play but usually involve themselves in an act. Theatre also has the ability to impact audiences straightforwardly as acts consist of dialogues with more or less the correct diction or choice of words used to persuade or impact the audience according to the targeted audience of the play, similarly, a play consists of multiple dialogues, expressions, gestures, movements, props thus it provides the audience with a large and deepened idea about its imposed motif.

The Emotional and Empathetic Power of Theatre

Theatre comes under the performing arts as movement and voices are involved in the body to convey a message and for the artist to be able to express herself/himself. Other than theatre being one of the most elite forms of art, it provides and showcases a display of history and human nature. This is what leads to the emotional connection between the audience and theatre as an artform making it easier for people to relate. The theatre has importance in people’s lives and therefore creates its purpose. The theatre helps in self-discovery, expression, and education and enhances creativity. All art forms, not only theatre indulge in the ability to communicate different ideas, thoughts, perspectives, and feelings beyond time, space, and language. For instance, ‘the glow of hope’ is a painting by S.L. Haldankar, the painting is also referred to as the ‘woman with the lamp’ which had been painted in 1945. Haldankar made his daughter Geeta the subject of his painting and the following painting is still very relevant in the year 2020, thus art forms are not bound to any specific time period, it is the depth and meaning that needs to be unfolded. The immortal painting distinguishes how women hold the power of light and grace, along with the urge in making decisions and standing up to the world with the same grace, power, and dignity which has been shown through the shining lamp.

Historical and Contemporary Forms of Theatre: Radio and Newspaper Theatre

Various forms and narratives of theatre include radio theatre and newspaper theatre, which have also been famous in the history of arts, Similarly, newspaper theatre is a technique of the Theater of the Oppressed as conceived by Augusto Boal. Theatre is usually reflected by newspaper articles and headlines, likewise, books and speeches have also aided newspaper theatres’ establishment. It prompts reflection on socially relevant issues by acting them out, engaging with audiences, and initiating audiences to reflect on various issues dealing with the world or personally. It was first officially adopted in the 1970s, Theatre of the Oppressed, a term coined by Augusto Boal, is a series of theatrical analyses and critiques first developed in the 1950s. Boal was a keen supporter of using interactive techniques, especially in the context of theatre. Newspaper Theatre was born as a manifesto of Arena Theater of Sao Paulo. It has in a short time numerous groups of nonactors to practice it and this has made the Dictatorship see Augusto Boal as such a risk that he was arrested, tortured, and finally sent into exile. The basis is newspaper articles, headlines but also books, speeches, etc. The scene is created with the help of news and reports. To start the participants get to know different reading methods so that they can then try to understand the origin and background of the news. The techniques from Newspaper Theater give us as facilitators, artists, and educators the ability to transform the text into theater collaboratively, Bringing the outside world through the news or the inside world of personal testimony and exploring it to make impactful theater with actors and non-actors. Newspaper Theatre was conceived and developed by Brazilian theatre teacher and activist Augusto Boal (1979; 1998) as a set of simple techniques for people to make their own piece of art (theatre). As a secondary aim, it attempts to demystify the media, and educate people to question the notion of objectivity. Newspaper theatre is a form of theatre that is widely spread across cultures, countries, cities, and towns, newspaper theatre has seemed to reach out to an audience in multiple ways irrespective of time, space, and language; as newspaper theatre does not involve actors performing live in front of an audience, thereby it is not very complicated for newspaper theatre pieces to spread through the world and reach multiple people and social groups, as it a form of theatre that can be recorded and sent across, it can also be viewed multiple times as it is not a live act of theatre it does not hamper the reaching out of it on the basis of space and time. Similarly, when we talk about the language problems that can be faced by different audiences, most newspaper theatres have been translated into different languages according to different cities, countries, and towns. The basis of its widespread use is through newspaper articles, headlines but also books, speeches, etc. The scene is created with the help of news and reports. In the beginning, the participants get to know different reading methods so that they can then try to understand the origin and background of the news.

Radio Drama: An Acoustic Performance Art

Radio drama is a form of theatre that is purely acoustic performance, whilst it only comprises sound effects, dialogues, and music, it does not contain any visual component. Radio theatre requires adequate and the correct choice of words/ diction, as well as the sound effects and music completely contrasting with the storyline and the theme so that the audience can easily understand and adapt to the theatre performance as the following aspects lead to considerable imagery which helps the audience to build on their ideas, opinions, perceptions, and feelings related to the play, and most importantly it allows the audience to engage with the theatre type. Radio theatre had been formed between 1880 – 1930. Radio drama was said to be born in the United States, first developed and enhanced by an engineer. Radio theatre achieved widespread popularity within a decade of its initial development in the 1920s. By the 1940s, it was a leading international popular entertainment. Podcasting offered the means of inexpensively creating new radio dramas, in addition to the distribution of vintage programs. The introduction of radio and television has had a profound impact on many aspects of society and culture, particularly on the humanities.

Radio theatre enables the communication of ideas, meaning, and experiences greatly, due to it being spread worldwide and being accessed by the majority in today’s time, it fundamentally agrees with the principle and ideology of Challenging the belief that sound drama is a ‘blind medium’, Radio Drama shows how experimentation in radio narrative has blurred the dividing line between fiction and reality in modern media. It generally displays a contrast between fiction as well as nonfiction in order for individuals to relate. Language in some cases can act as a problem faced by different audiences, however, most radio theatres are translated into multiple languages according to the particular locality, or targeted audience. Thereby, the following form of theatre is able to be related by various audiences and multiple communities due to its form of theatre aiding its spread across seas to be much easier for different audiences to capture. Radio theatre originated from 1880-1930. Radio drama traces its roots back to the 1880s: ‘In 1881 French engineer Clement Ader had filed a patent for ‘improvements of Telephone Equipment in Theatres” (Théâtrophone).

Radio theatre has been important in various contexts such as historically, personally, cultural and global, making this an important form of theatre. Looking at how the theatre was initiated during the times of the ancient Greeks, to the time of Shakespeare and now in the era of technology, we can see the historical context of the and is known to be a huge industry in today’s world, we have seen the evolution of how performing on stage led to performing with voice only in the form of radio drama, therefore making it historically significant as it marked a new trend and a new way of expression available to humans. In earlier times when the radio plays had newly stepped foot and enlightened the globe it had been an extremely effective platform to convey ideas and influence beings, however, the relevance and the effectiveness of radio dramas have reduced over time, with the advancements in televisions, multimedia, social media, etc. the tendency and frequency of people wanting to display radio plays had reduced as well as the people wanting to enhance and watch radio plays. In other words, it can be claimed that other such platforms have overshadowed the relevance of radio plays.

English-language radio drama seems to have started in the United States. Radio theatre established itself greatly in the world in 1920 which was known as the golden age of radio, Radio broadcasting was the cheapest form of entertainment, and it provided the public with far better entertainment than most people were accustomed to. As a result, its popularity grew rapidly in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and by 1934, 60 percent of the nation’s households had radios. Radio dramas first became popular in 1920 when they were invented. The first radio drama started in America. One of the first radio dramas written in the UK was Danger by Richard Hughes it was broadcast by BBC on January 15, 1924. Radio dramas became very popular in the 1930s as there were many different genres. In 1938 Orson Welles’s famous war of the worlds was broadcast. in 1951 the first broadcast of BBC’s The Archers the longest-running radio soap in the world which still runs today. Radio dramas continued to grow in popularity. Until 1960 when people started to get televisions. After televisions had caused a decline in the popularity of radio dramas they never recovered and became as popular as it was however radio drama does still continue on radio 3 and 4 and even since television, it has had some famous plays such as Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy and radio plays are a lot cheaper to make than television. The purpose of radio drama can be looked at as its advantages as well. Looking at how the theatre was initiated during the times of the ancient Greeks to be able to express and convey their thoughts to an audience on a large scale, and with radio being popular back in the day, it was a great platform.

The theatre form chosen is radio theatre which comprises multiple elements and techniques including narration, music, dialogues, and sound effects.

Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration encompasses a set of techniques through which the creator of the story presents their story, including a narrative point of view, the perspective through which a story is communicated. It is a crucial element and technique used in radio plays, as it provides better clarity and understanding to the audience, narration helps the audience engage back into the story if they lose interest, as it directly informs the audience what exactly is happening at that specific moment, what are the actions followed by the actors, expressions, etc.

Dialogue is extremely crucial in radio drama as it provides clarity and information, reveals each character, directs the path of attention (or foreshadow), reveals the theme of the drama, establishes the level of reality, and lastly dialogues aid understanding the rhythm and tempo of drama. In theatre dialogues are a conversation between two or more people as a feature of the act, thereby playing a very major role in a drama piece.

Music is another element present in radio theatre, it helps connect with two distinguished scenes and helps build the tone and mood of the drama, which enables people to deeply understand the feeling and mood of the play.

The sound effect makes a great means of shifting the scene or transitions from one scene to another, it works best when the setting of the new scene is foreshadowed by the concluding words of the old. It is also more effective where the sound background is repeated/repetitive (as such sounds can be faded out easily without creating confusion).

A few techniques and aspects to look at while performing a radio theatre include, critiquing your own work Once you have recorded your work, it is important to listen to how it sounds so that you can judge for yourself whether your intentions are being communicated to the audience. This is also a useful thing to do while you are rehearsing your play. Along with techniques such as voice modulation, use of breath, projection and delivering of tone, pace, pitch, volume, rhythm, and use of the pause. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRHP-NV54

Conclusion: The Enduring Relevance and Impact of Theatre in Society

Tip the waitress, a radio theatre piece that is set in a restaurant, featuring two men who come to dine and a waitress. The two men comprise dialogues that display mystery, curiosity and urge for higher intensity of the act. Later ahead, the radio has been turned on by the two men who hear news about themselves and their acts, the news talks about two armed gunmen who break into a division of Jefferies banking at approximately, along with two officers confirmed to be dead at the scene. Further ahead, the two men have an assertive argument regarding the news as they are the two gunmen that the news talked about and they both might be caught. The play ends with one of the gunmen called David telling the other to tip the waitress, thereby the title of the play is ‘tip the waitress. The following play was extremely relevant, it was a nonfictional play it did not comprise any aspect that was unfamiliar to the world of theatre and reality, the content was not very complex understanding the radio theatre piece was quite easy, due to the sound effects aiding the imagery and scene to be more prominent and specific as the sound effects also helped to visualize the setting and the space in much more depth and clarity, whilst the great use of sound effects had led the audience to completely emerge into the play while feeling the mood of the scenarios and engaging with the performance on a far better note. The radio theatre piece did not have any social or cultural biases or comprise any social norms or claims that could lead to offenses within various societies and different audiences, the piece was generalized and did not focus on any one ethnic cultural, or societal part of the world. The choice of words or the diction was well chosen as it also is a factor that makes a play complex to understand, however, the diction and use of dialogues in this performance were not complex, thus it can be easily understood with greater clarity. A few creative choices made were regarding the character’s utilizing their own voice for greater sound effects, there wasn’t much modulation of the voice, except for when the two men had begun an argument their voices had to be modulated into a louder voice with a lower pitch. There had been no background music, however, the bridge between the characters and the audience had still been created through the dialogues, diction, and sound effects alone. The following piece proves how art can communicate beyond time, and space as the following was a radio play which can be displayed to audiences across the globe and whatever time it is presented to audiences via radio which can be heard at whatever time and place. Similarly, the language spoken was English in the following play which is again the most common language, one that most of the globe is familiar with, thereby language was also not an issue in this play consisted of. Therefore the play is a form of art that can communicate a message, experience, or idea throughout the world without having to face barriers of language, time, and space.

Muzafer Sherif, a psychologist, developed social judgment theory in the early 1960s with the assistance of Carl I. Hovland and Carolyn W. Sherif. To explain apparent inconsistencies in attitude change research, Sherif and Hovland (n.d.) suggested a theory of social judgment. The theory delves into how people make decisions when persuaded to accept or reject a message based on their current attitudes toward that message or subject. According to the theory, attitude change is moderated by judgment and its consequences. When making a decision in any given situation, an individual will have several options.

When it comes to social judgment theory, there are three likelihoods (ranges): the scope of acceptance, the scope of rejection, and lastly the scope of non-commitment. When one discerns an idea and is more likely to contemplate it, that is referred to as the latitude of acceptance, or in theory, is referred to as the anchor. When an individual discerns the idea to be unbiased and is not likely to contemplate it, this is referred to as the latitude of rejection. When one discerns an idea and doesn’t consider it unbiased or within reason, that is called the latitude of non-commitment.

The contentious demonstrations of kneeling during the national anthem have prompted everyone around the country to take a stand on the subject. Taking a knee may be considered an appropriate way to protest racism and discrimination against minorities by one person, but it may be considered disrespectful to the national anthem and all those who have served this country by another. Some people may be unconcerned about the protests in any case, or they may hold a variety of viewpoints on the topic.

The specifics of these latitudes have been studied in order to determine how to show the structure of the individual’s attitude. The size of the previously mentioned latitudes corresponds to how active an individual is personally. An individual does not have prior knowledge, beliefs, or opinions about the information presented, and this will determine whether the message being persuaded is rejected or embraced by the listener. The importance of a problem or message in a person’s life is defined by ego involvement. A wide range of rejection indicates a high level of ego involvement.

Assimilation occurs when the individual receiving the idea or message feels that the position is more similar to their own than it is. In assimilation, the listener seems to share the same beliefs as the individual delivering the message. The effect of contrast occurs when the individual receiving the message or concept assumes that the position is more distant from their own than it is. In comparison, the listener seems to hold opinions that vary from those of the sender. When the message and the role being convinced are explicit, the contrast and assimilation effects are reduced. This paper investigates social judgment theory, its propositions, and its implementation.

The position of the convinced message influences the listener’s attitude change. According to Salazar (2017), studies have shown that understanding the application of these three latitudes improves the consistency of speakers’ arguments in the production of social campaign messages, the protection of organizational credibility, the assessment of occupational knowledge, and the creation of reliable messages in the process of attitudinal change. The activity used in this study was designed to help researchers gain a deeper understanding of the social judgment principle while attempting to convince others to take a certain stance.

During the activity discussed in ‘Changing Resistant Audience Attitudes Using Social Judgment Theory’s ‘Anchor’ Point Perspectives’, each group was given cards that say, ‘latitude of acceptance’, ‘latitude of rejection’, and ‘latitude of non-commitment’. The instructor had given the students controversial issues on which to base their persuasive message. Students were required to write convincing messages opposing the latitude on their cards, so if the card said ‘latitude of acceptance’, you would try to convince the listener to take a ‘latitude of rejection’. The teacher gave each group about 10 minutes to develop and present their convincing arguments to their peers. Every student in each group was also asked to provide their personal ‘anchor’ on the issue presented to them, demonstrating how it differed from their initial latitude on the cards. The overall activity was effective in assisting students in developing arguments and debating them in front of a diverse audience on a related topic/issue. Students gained a greater understanding of social judgment theory. It will help them practice not only convincing points but also being on the receiving end.

The social judgment model has been proven to be a resourceful and certified approach to certain situations, however, Brambilla (2014) suggested thinking about the communion dimension as including at least two distinct characteristics: sociability and morality. Being friendly to everyone to sustain healthy, affectionate, and productive relationships are referred to as sociability. Morality can be described as treating others in ways that we believe are correct and ethical to preserve trustworthy and respectful relationships. Participants in the experiment described in ‘On the Importance of Being Moral: The Distinctive Role of Morality in Social Judgement’ were asked to create a list of characteristics that would aid them in forming an opinion of another individual. The majority of participants chose morality-related traits over sociability or competence. These results corroborated previous studies indicating that most people valued trustworthiness above all other qualities. Because of how it correlates to the assessment of an individual’s intentions as favorable or unfavorable, the findings endorse the notion that morality is essential within social judgment theory. Researchers suggested in their study on sociability, morality, and competence about the social judgment that seeing one person or a group of people as talented should have a variety of implications for social interactions and judgments rather than seeing them as powerful, assertive, or vigorous. Some suggested investigating more concrete ways in which people judge themselves and their personal understanding.

Criticizing someone’s past would not directly result in a negative view of that person, however, it will persuade someone to have a negative opinion of that person. Instead of using the form of direct criticism towards someone, a person might benefit more if it just would be indirect. For example, instead of directly stating what someone did wrong in a situation, one could take an indirect approach by stating things that they could have done better and to try next time. That approach in a situation is known as a counterfactual argument, and according to Catellani (2014), those statements are mental stimuli about how a situation would have ended differently if one or more antecedents had been different.

In their study, ‘The Impact of Counterfactual Attacks on Social Judgement’, the researchers looked at counterfactual attacks and how their effects contribute to social judgments. Attack messages are cynical details about the initial attack’s topic, specifically, actions. One might argue that attempting to criticize a person could result in a negative reaction towards the source of the original message rather than the objective. To prevent negative backlash, one might suggest giving both criticism and compliments at the same time. The study looked at the effectiveness of counterfactual assaults on morality in a political context. Politics was explicitly chosen for this study because it is naturally contentious, and political leaders are often judged based on their appearance and morality. Within this experiment, two experiments were conducted, and in both studies, participants (108 students) examined a fabricated interview between a political figure and a reporter. The reporter’s final thought was transformed into a factual or counterfactual assault. The analysis also included a control group. The hypothesis was that the counterfactual attack would produce a similarly bad result as the factual attack and that this effect would be moderated so that it was assumed that the counterfactual was less likely to be biased than the factual. The findings revealed that after the counterfactual assault, judgment in general became more important.

After social judgment theory originated, social psychologists began to lean towards the processing in correlation to social judgments. In a recent study, the focus has moved more to the sense of firmer decisions made by individuals. The research confirmed that the psychological association of personality traits resulted in a layout in which those traits are separated. According to Costa-Lopes (2016), personality characteristics are better spatially represented when divided into two aspects: mental and social (good/bad). In a positive sense, the intellectual contained traits such as determination, intelligence, and motivation, while in a negative sense, it included traits such as idiotic, dumb, or foolish. On the positive side, the social included characteristics such as being heartfelt, soft, tolerable, and authentic, while on the negative side, it included attributes such as being untrustworthy, introverted, and cold.

One study chose to investigate hostility when it is caused by an incident unrelated to the current situation in which a person may find themselves. Anger is an emotion that people experience nearly every day, and most times it is always out of their control. Regardless of why people become angry, they must transform anger into a calmer emotion because it can interfere with other important things that are going on. Every individual is unique in terms of how they manage to regulate how their emotions affect other events. Individuals use a variety of techniques to channel their emotions, especially anger, and turn them into positive emotions.

A study was conducted to investigate how anger moves within a person and how knowledge is suppressed in a situation where the anger is from a previous situation. Researchers hypothesized that people who had a higher level of anger at the start of the study would be more biased toward social decisions after anger management. They reasoned that people who have a higher suppression of angry feelings will have less prejudice because they can isolate themselves from the stimuli. Participants read a story about a protagonist going about his daily activities. Five of the twenty sentences were often malicious but debatable acts. Following the reading of the narrative, participants were asked questions about their emotional well-being. Knowing that you are experiencing a particular emotion can reduce the severity of its effects on you. The questions contained general questions about the overall intent of the research, but the majority of participants had no idea what it was. When asked how they felt while reading the protagonist’s story, the majority said they were furious. The introduction of anger was valid, and participants reported that background noise made them more irritable. According to Fiori (n.d.), the findings demonstrated that the consequences of indignation are applicable to social judgments. The greater the participants’ awareness of frustration, the more they allowed the anger to impact an unrelated situation, which initially resulted in more prejudice in social judgments.

Everyone forms opinions, whether about a specific person, an idea, or a message. When people make decisions about people, it is most definitely not based on assumptions about how they appear, but rather on how they behave. Behaviors can be viewed in many different ways. For example, if a person chooses to go skydiving, does this imply that the person is ‘adventurous’ or ‘crazy’? According to Maringer (2009), there is no prior evidence to justify why prime memory contributes to contrast in social judgments. Correction, described as someone who is conscious but will not use or remove it from impressions, is defined as someone who is aware but will not use or remove it from impressions. Another reason for contrasted judgments is that conscious individuals will most likely use the knowledge to weigh their behaviors.

Many researchers have studied the subject of credibility and how it contributes to social judgment over the years. A reputation is described as what you are recognized for and how others interpret you, and what they think of you. Some may accept that reputations are strongly linked to stereotypes. In high school, for example, a student can have a strong reputation for being a high achiever or valedictorian. Reputations and stereotypes can be good or poor, and they may as well be viewed positively or negatively. Mishina (2012) investigated organizational credibility and classified it into two categories: favorability about their character and favorability about their capacity. When assessing the prejudices of social judgment, it is critical to developing the two categories when addressing organizational credibility. In that you make decisions about a person or group based on their sociability, reputation is closely linked to social judgment.

So, in certain cases, social judgment theory is too nebulous to include a comprehensive account of convincing communications. The only essential elements of the convincing message are the advocating stance and the affirmation of the position it calls for. It makes no difference if the convincing idea is firm in its debates or has legitimate points. It all comes full circle back to the message’s defense. Since a hypothesis can never be confirmed, social judgment theory may benefit from some current research. As new theories and psychologists/researchers take up this communication-based theory, case studies and experiments should continue.

Someone trying to convince a message may not be firm in their beliefs about the initial message, and they may conclude that they were effective in their persuasions simply because the recipient demonstrates full affirmation in agreement. Anything about the message transfer would be deceptive if the message’s recipient was uncertain about what was being convinced. Aside from this viewpoint, we must remember that, when a person may have a predetermined place in their minds, they still have other ranges to consider: the latitudes of approval, the latitudes of rejection, and the latitudes of non-commitment. The person recovering the message is not required to comply with the person trying to convince them. It could be advantageous to reassure the receiver that their position on the issue is within the limits of the non-commitment latitude.

Since the early 1960s, social decision theory has been studied, investigated, challenged, and analyzed. Aside from a few experiments used to teach the idea, it hasn’t received much attention in recent years. Overall, it is a useful theory to consider when you go through daily life experiences and find yourself in situations where you must make decisions. All are judges, and this objective philosophy provides certain criteria and definitions for making good or poor judgments. This idea, I believe, should be studied more thoroughly as culture changes and communication practices change over time. The majority of the research I reviewed focused on perceptions of individuals based on their appearance (body language, gender, age, attitudes, etc.), which was the most significant factor in deciding their social judgments.

As previously mentioned, we now have new communication methods. Since we communicate virtually, it is more difficult to make authentic decisions because we are hidden behind a mobile phone, laptop, game console, and so on. People do use these tools to make decisions, but they aren’t as reliable as face-to-face interaction. Trying to convince someone via text message or social media news feed can be easier or more difficult. Many factors influence a person’s current attitude toward the subject, their emotional state, and how insecure they are when addressing or debating controversies online. It would have been interesting to learn more about social decisions when they relate to social media or emerging technology.

In the world of tomorrow, video games are constantly growing and thriving as a result of people’s interest in an escape from reality. Video games first stepped into the public eye in the early 1970’s, with the introduction of the Atari system, and the popular yet simple game known as Pong. When pong had launched on the Atari system, Atari Inc became a household name until the early 90’s (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2019). Since the decline of the Atari, other popular gaming systems such as the Playstation and Xbox have taken center stage, and have been in the spotlight for over 15 years. Since then, both companies have competed against each other with the launches of new gaming consoles every couple of years.

Video games are defined as a simulation of technology manipulated by a computer and displayed on a screen (qtd. in Ingram & Cangemi 1). Since their introduction in the 1970’s, video games have grown into the multi-billion dollar industry that it is today. In 2016, annual US retail sales alone reached $30 billion, and over $91 billion worldwide(Ingram & Cangemi 2) In only one country, video games grossed $30 billion, and the sales have only continued to grow with each passing year as technology continues to improve. However, as the industry grows, criticism grows as well. People say that as the industry continues to flourish, violence and crimes influenced by violent video games will also grow as a result. But, even with these stereotypical and negative effects, there are more benefits to playing video games than there are downsides.

A common criticism of video games is that playing them is an antisocial activity. In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Over 60% of gamers play with other people in person, and over 90% of gamers on PC (Personal Computer) play with friends online (qtd. in Ingram & Cangemi 2). According to Jay Ingram and Joseph Cangemi, Canadian author and psychology professor respectively,“Online games have the capacity to create opportunities for players to experience achievement, as well as the ability to network with others and form sustained social bonds”(Ingram & Cangemi 6). This shows that video games have the ability to help form long-lasting friendships,and allow players to feel accomplished. Having certain objectives in games give players focus, and an ability to come up with creative ways to solve problems within a simulation. Failure to achieve said objectives give the player a feeling of motivation, which makes finally completing the achievement that much more satisfaction. Video games are often seen as being a way to unwind/relax after a long day, and is commonly known as a way to relieve excess stress.

Video games are known to involve complex tasks that require certain skills to accomplish. By developing such skills after repetitive playing, video games can give players certain advantages over their non-playing counterparts. For example, in a study conducted by researchers Adam Oei and Michael Patterson,”Results from the study corroborated the increasing body of evidence indicating that action video game play enhances several cognitive and perceptual abilities”(Oei & Patterson 13). perceptual enhancements include improved peripheral vision, contrast sensitivity, working memory, ability to multitask, and also grants reduced attentional blink effects(Oei & Patterson 1). This essentially means that video games, especially action-oriented games such as Call of Duty or Battlefield, can improve certain characteristics. The fast-paced gameplay requires good reaction time and quick thinking in order to defeat the opponent. Ability to multitask allows players to complete multiple objectives at once, which is a skill that is highly desired in today’s society. With a stronger working memory, a person’s reasoning and decision-making grow much stronger, and they can use these skills in everyday life.

Using video games as tools in order to strengthen these skills is incredibly positive, and is not only used by everyday people, but also used by the United States Military for numerous reasons. According to John Derby, a Psychology Professor at the University of Kansas, “The U.S military’s first foray into modifying retail video games was the first-person shooter “Doom”, which was modified as “Marine Doom” in 1997 for teaching decision-making and military thinking” (qtd. in Derby 2). The U.S military uses video games as a way to not only train military personnel, but to also recruit young gamers. “Marine Doom” was not the last time the government would modify video games to increase interest in joining the military. The first military training application for a commercial gaming console was the application “Full Spectrum Command”, which was later modified into the award winning commercial video game “Full Spectrum Warrior” (FSW). FSW is a game where two squads of soldiers move through an environment, covering each other and killing Al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists. Following the success of the game, ICT, one of the companies that helped the military develop FSW, went on to develop as a virtual reality therapy interface used to treat PTSD in veterans coming home from war. Usually, veterans are not keen to go to therapy to help treat their PTSD. According to war veteran Travis Boyd, “ I didn’t want to have it on my military record that I was crazy. {….} Even though there was no punishment for going to therapy, it was looked down upon and seen as weak” (qtd. in Derby 11). This attitude is not uncommon for soldiers coming home from war. In a study conducted in 2004, researchers Hoge et al. found that only 23% to 40% of Iraq and Afghanistan soldiers coming home sought mental health care (Derby 11). However, soldiers are more likely to go play a game that works as V.R therapy then go to a therapist for mental health. This shows that veterans will only get the help they need from playing video games, since they see it as a weakness to go see a therapist. Not only are video games good for normal everyday people, they are also supported by the U.S military, and help veterans fight against the horrors of war. However, because the U.S army and other branches of the military are seen as violent, people make the assumption that video games are also incredibly brutal and aggressive.

Video games can be violent, that is an indisputable fact. They can also be seen as sexist, homophobic and even racist. However, this can also be said with any other form of media. Such examples include movies, music, and books. Like all of these, video games cannot be blamed for making people violent. Blaming a game for inspiring especially violent behavior is akin to blaming a movie for manipulating a person’s emotions. Garry Crawford, a Professor of Cultural Sociology, states that, “As with any cultural activity, it is impossible to categorize video games as wholly good or bad” (Crawford 5). This means that video games are unable to be categorized as only evil, as playing them is a cultural activity, meaning that they may or may not inspire a person to be more aggressive. Compared to sports such as boxing, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts, video games are much more tame and controlled. Because playing video games is seen as a leisure activity that one will play in their spare time, it can be said that it inspires other emotions besides anger or aggression. They can make a player feel joy, victory, triumph, and determination. Not every game is violent, and most games that are violent are out of a child’s reach, so children are safe from the violence that is portrayed.

Every game that has ever been made has what is called a “rating”. When looking at the box a game comes in or a game in general, there is a black and white square that has letters and numbers in it. Depending on what letter is in the square, that is the rating. For example, if a game has the letter “M” on it, that means that the content of the game is for mature audiences only, and should not be played by children. Other ratings include “E for everyone”, and “T for teen”. These popular phrases are used in these ratings by a company known as the “Entertainment Software Surface Board”, or ESRB for short (ESRB ratings). According to the ESRB website, the primary mission of this non-profit regulatory organization is to “help parents make informed decisions about the video games and apps their children play (ESRB ratings, 2019). The ESRB makes these ratings so parents can know what games they should and should not buy for their children. What this means is that if a game is too violent, then a parent should not buy the game for their child depending on the child’s age. In fact, it is a common rule in stores to ask for identification before completing a purchase. So if a child is below the age requirement, then the game will not be sold to that child.

In conclusion, playing video games is a cultural activity that has many benefits and not nearly as many downsides. They provide people of all ages and backgrounds with entertainment as well as skills that can impact daily lives in a positive way. Playing them can grant certain enhancements such as improved sight, attention to detail, and many others mentioned in the earlier paragraphs. Even the U.S military uses video games to help train those who keep the United States safe from outside threats and treat veterans afflicted with trauma. Games are also a large part of world culture, now being seen as a form of media along with films, music, and literature. Video games are also for people of all ages, and certain games are restricted from children. With technology continuing to grow every passing day, video games will continue to thrive alongside it, making billions more dollars and affecting any who come into contact with them in nothing but positive ways.

There have been so many arguments over whether or not violent media has affected our society. Have they become more aggressive? Is there more crime? How does popular media affect real-life assault and violence? These questions have been asked over the years and it is still puzzling as to what the potential impact is. Not only do children- but adults as well spend hours upon hours playing games and listening to music that includes aggressive words and actions. These words and actions may just be something we hear or see on a screen, but they affect us in a way that makes us act differently because we cannot comprehend the real world.

The shooting at Columbine in 1999 was considered the deadliest in all of American history. Thirteen innocent people died and twenty were injured. Ever since then, public schools all around the country have been preparing themselves for these tragedies and finding ways to prevent them, and yet the school shootings seem to be getting worse and worse. Craig Scott was a survivor of the shooting. His sister was the first victim. Craig was interviewed a lot, and he started to take an interest in filming. He realized that the film industry had a great impact on people. “I thought I could make a positive influence on society through film,” says Craig.

It was said that the shooters, Dylan and Eric, enjoyed violent movies, music, and video games. Craig however, does not believe that the media directly caused these boys to shoot up their schools, but he does believe that “there should be some kind of responsibility for products.” Later in his life, Craig studied film at the Colorado Film School and co-produced a film about Rachel’s life.

As Craig said, the media is never directly responsible for the sick minds of these shooters, and yet it gradually causes individuals to dehumanize others or to feel that they are superior to others. In movies, bad guys and cops fire their guns and kill without much thought. In music, violent words and aggressive thoughts are mixed with catchy beats to engage listeners and make them more memorable. Video games are boring for some individuals to play by themselves, so they play with a group of their friends where aggressive behavior is encouraged throughout the game. Still the question remains, how can what’s portrayed on a screen cause real-life behavior to change?

Throughout the years, concerns over whether or not media affects people has not decreased. With the amount of shootings and crimes happening, experts want answers as to what can cause individuals to act out in such a way. One theory, assumes that the audience feeds their needs with the selective media that they choose instead of being forced to intake the information. The media provides for consumers what they need at that moment, whether it is enjoyment, reducing their boredom, giving them information, or making communication easier. Another theory- first developed by scholar George Gerbner, claimed that it is important to understand the process between the viewer and the message that the media is portraying. Television and other media over time sends some kind of clarity of how the world works, and helps the viewers understand that. Though there is evidence of both theories, the relationship between behaviors and media is still unknown.

Sociologist Karen Sternheimer stated that “Media culture is not the root cause of American social problems, not the Big Bad Wolf, as our ongoing public discussion would suggest.” Sternheimer argued that we got the idea all wrong, and that media should not be blamed on all the violence that goes on, but rather we should look at all the family violence, poverty, economic inequalities and domestic abuse that goes on and start fixing those problems first.

Music is very important to youth, and many at a young age already have a set genre that they really like and keep up with. Popular music emphasizes a lot of negative ideas, such as substance abuse, suicide, violence and racism. For violent lyrics to promote youth to do dangerous things, the listeners must look for the message. Then, once the message about violence or substance abuse is found, they must connect it to their own lives- meaning trying something on their own. This means that it doesn’t just take a violent message to force the idea onto youth, but it also takes the youth to interpret the message into what they think it’s saying.

The Catharsis Theory suggests that violence included in media is actually a positive thing. Instead of it projecting a bad message, it instead helps artists release the frustrations they have against this world. Without this release, we’d in fact be more aggressive. For example: if you had a bad day and you come home either to write a song or to watch a violent movie, it will release some of that tension and help you be less aggressive and violent since you understand that others feel frustrated as well.

On the other hand, the Aggressive Cues Theory states that violent media does have an impact. Watching a violent movie or playing a violent video game gives us a bit of an adrenaline rush and make us more tense, increasing our chances of committing a violent act. Another way the audience can be led to some type of aggressive behavior is when they can relate to the protagonist in some way, whether it be lifestyle or their mishaps. When the crime that is done is justifiable, that gets the viewers thinking about whether or not it’s an act worth committing.

Researches define media violence as “portrayal of acts of physical aggression by one human or human-like character against another”. Many theories have evolved from this definition, and specified more into what type of violence makes the audience act out more. Does violent media promote violence in our society? Although it still is not perfectly clear as to what the answer is, we can conclude that in some ways the media causes us to be more aggressive and in others it just depends on how we depict the messages.

Bibliography

1. Phillips, Nickie. Violence, Media Effects, and Criminology. Oxford Research Encyclopedias, 2017. http://oxfordre.com/criminology/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264079-e-189.
2. Maureen, Ryan. “A Story of Survival”. Scholastic Action, 29, no. 8 (2006). 14-17.
3. Roberts, Donald F, Christenson, Peter G and Gentile, Douglas A. “The Effects of Violent Music on Children and Adolescents.” In Media Violence and Children, edited by Douglas A. Gentile, 153-170. Connecticut: Praeger, 2003.
4. Mehraj, Hakim K, Bhat, Akhtar N, Mehraj, Hakeem R. “Impacts of Media on Society: A Sociological Perspective.” International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention, 3, no. 6 (2014). 2319-7722.
5. Huesmann, Rowell L. The Impact of Electronic Media Violence: Scientific Theory and Research. National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2007. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2704015/.

My Topic is violence in video games and society. My topic question: Is there a correlation between violence expressed in video games and violence in society? This hot topic was a huge question since the 1990’s after mass shooting in Columbine in the state of Colorado. In the research I will trying to prove: Is there a direct correlation in violence in video games and violence in society. My position on this topic is Yes, there is a direct correlation between violence in video games and violence in society. There is a difference in where people position or stand on this topic and a debate whether violence in video games do cause people to do violence in society. There is research and study for both sides of this argument. History in video games evolution to puzzle games like Pac-Man, Tetris, and Donkey Kong and the first-person shooter game was Doom which was a man shooting aliens. Which Doom introduce another kind of video game where you can put violence in games and that will sell. After Doom was selling Congress passed a law after parents complained about there not being a rating system and Congress passed the “Video Games Ratings Act” regulating any game sold on the market had to have a rating system or else will be considered illegal and the company will be fined 500,000 dollars or give its earning to the government. After the 90’s and video games were progressing the video game survey came out in stores in GameStop in early 2000’s and it was a choice of puzzle, sports, violence, and educational games from 1-4 one being the best would buy it and four being I wouldn’t buy it. 1) Violence, 2) Sports, 3) Puzzles 4) Educational after this survey was complete 50 percent wanted violence in video games, 25 percent for sports in video games, 15 percent for puzzles and 10 percent for educational games. This survey prevailed and games like GTA was mad after six months from the survey and made sold 2.6 million copies in the United States and soon more violent video games were made with more violence each game progressed. From Call of Duty, Battlefield, Grand Theft Auto, and Mortal Kombat. Top selling games as the 2000’s progressed throughout the years. As well as mass shootings and violence in society.

How I plan to conduct the research is using reliable resources like as databases that have scholarly journals, credible articles, also will be using credible websites like NPR.org, also have two book sources and conduct a personal interview. With answering my topic question: Is there a correlation between violence in video games and violence in society? The research will be having statistics and data both qualitative and quantitative data and I will be using statistics formula to get accurate percentages and data to finalize my research. This essay will cover both positions and stances on this issue. I am open to having my position to change throughout my research. Looking at graphs and charts seeing the progression in violence in society from early 2000’s to present day. Also, will use my personal interview and see their stance and view on this issue and writing down quotes and their opinions. While reading articles and scholarly journals I will be taking notes and quotes from important people on both positions of the issue. While I read my two book sources I will be doing the same method of analyzing the book and the summary of the chapters jotting down notes on important dates in history and doctor or physiological studies or quotes either backing up the position on Yes, violence in video games cause violence in society and No, violence in videogames do not cause violence in society. Throughout reading articles and websites I will be looking at histograms and charts such as pie charts or line graphs showing progressions over the years of violence and casualties. Also, will be looking at sales in violent video games and how much money they made off these franchises such as Call of Duty, Battlefield, Grand Theft Auto, and Mortal Kombat. The method of analyzing, summarizing, calculations and highlighting important quotes, conducting a personal interview and covering people or politicians even companies that cover both positions of the argument. These are the methods I will be using to provide acute data and information for this research paper.

For my sources I will be using two books in titled “How does video games affect society?” written by Patricia D. Netzley. Another book “Grand Theft Childhood The surprising truth about violent video games.” written by Lawrence Kutner (PHD) and Cheryl K. Olsen (ScD). For the Scholarly journals I will be using Academic Search Complete using the following filters from years 2000-2020, scholarly journals and articles. Using a credible a credible website that is npr.org which is a news source that has a unbiased opinion and radio station on 88.9 and a website which I will be using two articles from “What Research Says About Video Games And Violence In Children” and the other article “Video Game Violence: Why Do We Like It, And What’s It Doing To Us?” I will be conducting a personal interview with Adam Nazari who is a group home staff for adults with special needs. These are the variety of sources I will be using for this research essay.

For my timeline which started on February 12, 2020 when Professor Benson assigned this project later that night, I laid out a timeline to finish my research Proposal, Annotated Bibliography, Research Essay itself. On the same day February 12, 2020, I began writing the Proposal rough draft starting with the sections titled Introduction and Background, Method, Sources, Timeline and Conclusion. The next several days from February 13, 2020- February 29, 2020 I type the proposal and edit and revise the essay for the proposal. On March 4, 2020 turn in final draft of the proposal essay. On March 2, 2020 I begin reading the two book sources starting with the longer book source titled Grand Theft Childhood written by Lawrence Kutner (PHD) and Cheryl K. Olsen (ScD). With a total 230 pages I read 46 pages a day for five days and finish March 7, 2020 and summarize my notes quotes and information that I will use in the essay in the Annotated Bibliography. On March 8 begin reading my second book titled “How does video games affect society?” written by Patricia D. Netzley with a total of 79 pages reading this book for three days reading 26 pages a day finishing the book on March 11 summarizing the source and notes and quotes and add to the Annotated Bibliography then working on the Research sources like the databases the scholarly journals on Academic Source Complete, the Articles on the npr.org website reading the articles titled “What Research Says About Video Games And Violence In Children” and the other article “Video Game Violence: Why Do We Like It, And What’s It Doing To Us?”. Then March 13-16, 2020 use these days to read analyze the data and read the articles and March 17, 2020- March 20, 2020 for three days type the Annotated Bibliography. On March 23, 2020 Annotated Bibliography Rough Draft 1 get peer reviewed. Then edit and revise the Annotated Bibliography from March 20, 2020- March 24,2020. Turn in final draft of the Annotated Bibliography on March 25, 2020. On March 26, 2020 being typing the Research paper rough draft to the day April 8 which is Research paper rough draft peer review day and take those edits and revisions and fix them by April 11, 2020 then have the final draft turned in on April 12, 2020 on Canvas when the product was due.

This Proposal Essay explains the introduction and background of my topic for my research project which my topic is Violent Video Games Cause Violence in society. With my topic question being: Is there a correlation between violence in video games and violence in society? Also talked about the methods I will be using to get accurate information and data. The sources I will be using and the timeline of how to complete these three assignments Proposal, Annotated Bibliography, and Research Paper on time using the given due dates from Professor Benson to have this project fully completed by April 12, 2020.

There is no simple black and white answer to this question, however we can make an educated guess based on a thorough analysis on every shred of evidence we have gathered on the topic over the years. First of all, what kind of benefits have video games given to the people who spend a substantial amount of play hours during any given week? Well, the most popular games that the majority of people play, require the application of many skills that are important to real life, including, but certainly not limited to, problem solving and logic, hand eye coordination, resource management and logistics, multitasking, fast and accurate decision making and analysis of situation, strategy, planning, situational awareness, perseverance, amongst a seemingly endless list of other benefits. Tasks in video games almost all include one of these, or other skills that are important and applicable to everyday life in the real world, and constantly performing these actions in video games subconsciously hones these skills very rapidly depending on how much time a person spends gaming. This is especially impactful on youth, as their brains are still developing, and mental tasks like the ones in most video games has an undeniable impression on how they think, and how their brain develops its skills to deal with the real life equivalent to these situations. These can have a permanent benefit on their brains and abilities.

This is barely scratching the surface of the benefits to playing video games, however, we can’t present the positive without acknowledging the potential negative effects. One of the biggest issues people have with video games and their children playing them, is the violence a lot of these games seem to glorify, which they believe will also leave a lasting impression on the children playing, however this is not as simple as many believe. After numerous studies from multiple experts and universities of children and adults all over the world, has come up with the conclusion that there is a level of increase of aggression and bad attitude of children who get mad or frustrated with these games, particularly violent ones, but the majority of the time they found that these negative effect are temporary, similar to anything in life that can upset or infuriate a person, it simply can just take a bit of time to calm down and get over what has bothered them. However, this is not the case for some children pre-disposed to mental disorders or issues, including but not limited to Attention deficit disorder, Schizophrenia, as well as most other mental disorders that affect emotion or the way we think.

As for adults, they’re mostly unaffected by things such as violence in video games, as their brains are developed, so given the person in question was entirely sound of mind, evidence suggests the things they see in video games would have no significant effect on them at a conscious or sub-conscious level. Let’s talk about percentages; an article in Forbes magazine, discusses the results of a survey undertaken by a data led discussion platform known as qutee. The survey was entirely made up from 4500 people, across 10 nations. 89% of gamers believe gaming is beneficial to society, 44% say the most important benefit is improved emotional well-being, 93% agree that the media’s obsession with linking violence and video games is not justified. They also believed it to be an excellent way to make new friends, with 66% of them saying they made up to 5 new good friends while gaming, and 37% said they made more than 5 friends, additionally, a third of them say it inspired future careers. Many people don’t regard the findings accurate, with the point that because a high volume of people surveyed were gamers, so they think its plagued with bias, on the contrary, I believe it to be an opposite. Those commenting on the subject who aren’t gamers themselves have a biased and inaccurate opinion, because they don’t play games and experience them, so whatever their opinion of games, they aren’t speaking on experience, they’re simply finding a scapegoat to blame violence in society on. Gaming certainly has its negatives, like gaming addiction that need to be addressed. It’s nowhere near perfect, and I don’t think gamers ever claimed it was, rather they want it to be known it’s not even close to being as bad as the media portrays.

Society has introduced us to what women look up to be the ‘ideal girl’. The ideal girl is a person who is perfect in any woman’s eye, what a woman aspires to be like and has what a woman thinks she does not have. She is everywhere we turn to look, she is an image. Her body is flawless which makes women question why their body looks the way it looks and not similar. She is what men want, she is admired the way any woman would want to be admired by a man. She is the ideal girl, and the ideal girl is beauty. Jennifer Worley writes an argument on what women think beauty is and make readers think abroad to show us that it’s the opposite of what society says. The argument is said to be hidden but it unfolds by explaining that not being perfect is different, the ideal girl has been exposed to women in their early lives and that there are different ways to beauty.

Since technology has grown tremendously today, women have the advantage to change their appearances. However, being a young girl trying to change an appearance is not as easy as it seems. But it is easy to grow desire to change appearances by just looking at the, ‘ideal girl’ and trying to compare yourself and begin to work on the perfect image. Dieting, exercising, or painful treatments that promise to change your appearance is the most common treatments that women reach out to. Girls rather choose the pain than to be imperfect. The imperfect is not seen often which makes it easy for women to find the idea of what is a perfect body. Models have the responsibility to lead by encouraging a role, which explains the rise of the idea to be thinner. Women are surrounded by the images of a thin girl in the advertising world. During the process of women trying to perfect their bodies comes the step or buying products. Which explains the fact on why women are used multiple times to be the image of advertising. Companies that sell related products that say to sell products to help a women’s body have an idea of what women seek to be perfect. It results on women to decrease their thought of value in themselves which is by the extreme diets.

This is lead to a comparison between men and women. Men aren’t regularly intrigued to exercise, but women will most likely be up for it caused by the surroundings of these ‘thin’ images stuck in their heads. Its not easy to emphasize the fact that all diets aren’t so healthy for women themselves, “they cause women to become malnourished and develop vitamin deficiencies, the effects of which can be difficult to reverse. And, even though diets may help drop unwanted pounds, the weight often returns once the diet is stopped.” (Worley 1). It all comes together to show the kind of popular ideas of what women’s society looks like today. It’s so well known that not trying to be perfect is rare to see.

The mind of a young girl is curious and explorative, at young ages anything a girl sees is beauty. When toys were introduced, girls were inspired and dreamed of owning a Barbie. The curves, the cleavage, the body, etc. were the image of how this Barbie looked like and ‘lived’, an idea that was exposed to young girls. “For a woman to achieve this body type, she would have to be severely underweight and malnourished. Barbie is not merely a toy in this sense, but rather a proponent of poor body image for young children.” (Bilello 5). Not to mention, Ken came to the picture not too long after Barbie did. Which made Ken be this idealistic persona to a little girl’s life. Ken appears to be strong and healthy while on the other hand, Barbie idealizes women in the ways that are thin and delicate. Since the images of both men and women were exposed to both men and women in early childhood it explains the current communication both genders have towards each other. Women are self-doubting themselves and men are picturing women on how the idealistic woman should be. There are images being thrown our way, everyone, we get them stuck to our heads and we instantly act like we know what the perfect women is and what ‘beauty’ is.

It makes it difficult for women to accept their own or to be accepted in society with the identity women are forced to be like. Its almost like their drawn or try to be changed by somebody else.

A perfect world will consist of a group of people living around each other, an ideal society is wherever there’s not a lot of arguing, it would be world full of different, wonderful people that will always remain true to themselves. An ideal society is where giving support to each other, A perfect society is one in which no one is afraid to be punished, and therefore he is free to act according to his will. A culture that experiences all its feeling, however continues to be a stable community that’s revered by people.

Some of its characteristic are that some mostly everything is that the same and perfect, and usually there is one leader. An ideal society isn’t possible in my opinion, because Jonas’s perfect world and society is not the one who’s choosing his life, there is somebody that management their lives.

Jonas’s sees his community as a perfect community, Jonas’s community tries to create things perfect, Jonas’s community tried to form an ideal society by giving folks jobs after they reach twelve years old, everyone in Jonas’s community assigned to do something when they reach a certain age. Twelve is an age once they are struggling to carve out a distinct identity for themselves. Jonas’s community doesn’t represent the perfect of society as a result of there aren’t any decisions. Jonas’s sees his community as perfect, till the day he begins his training as receiver.

There are some blessing of living in a society of sameness would be that there would be less stress. everyone would have health care, enough to eat. The folks from the community don’t see color, or have freedom on creating a decision for them. There would be no competition, no struggle for jobs, and no personal choices. Jonas is assigned to be the next receiver of the community, He was trained by the giver, who transfers memories of the pain and pleasures of life.

Jonas’s sees his community as a perfect community, Jonas lives among the future in a very community wherever the giver is that the only one who knows everything. In Jonas’s community, nobody makes their own decisions. In their community, you cannot just choose who you want and marry them, the community does it for you, also in their community you cannot have a child on your own, you’re forced to take these children and pay attention for them. The resident of sameness are told who to marry, what to wear, what number kids you’ll be able to have, where to live, and what job will they have. His dad works as a Nurturer of new children, and his mom works at the Department of Justice. Jonas’s makes the first real choice in his life when he decides to escape from the community and take Gabriel with him.

In conclusion, A perfect society is possible and being a part of a perfect society doesn’t worth giving up freedom. Jonas’s sees his community as a perfect community that the citizens of his own society offer their own freedom. Jonas’s community tried to make a perfect society by giving people folks after they reach twelve years old, every person within the Jonas’s community assigned something to do when they reach a certain age. Freedom is a important right that everyone should have in a community and individuality. However , it’s also not a perfect society as a result of the community chooses who your children are going to be. The citizens give their fundamental rights by listening to regardless of the committee says.