In Gary Kleck’s essay, “There Are No Lessons to Be Learned from Littleton”, Kleck has it all said out in the name. By the media covering the shooting in Littleton, school shootings have escaladed since the media exposure. He goes onto explain how unintentionally kids react after hearing about shootings in the media. He is putting a lot of blame on the media for encouraging violence.
The purpose of this essay is to make people aware that watching the media coverage on violence, doesn’t teach kids to not be violent rather increases the likeliness of school violence.
He believes if the medias main stories weren’t always to do with violence, the violence rate would decrease, “A tragedy that has already occurred obviously cannot be prevented by any actions taken now. Therefore, actions will prevent harm only to the extent that the events they can effectively head off are likely to be repeated in the future” (212). The media should put a little “warning” phrase before any exposure to violence, as the news broadcast is just not watched by adults, teens too.
Kleck does a great job of showing how the media coverage could lead kids to becoming violent, “Mississippi responded to the Pearl shootings by making murder on school property a capital offense, even though premeditated murder, regardless of location, was already a capital offense in Mississippi. The killers in this incident, moreover, were ineligible for the death penalty because of their ages, eleven and thirteen: minimum age for death penalty was left unchanged” (213). Where could an eleven year old and a thirteen year old get such ideas?
Also the media doesn’t help by saying the kids were not charged because they were not of age to be considered an adult, could give more reason for younger kids to be violent.
My question to you is what should the punishment be for a non-adult who killed someone?
This is a difficult question to answer. Youth who commit a violent crime usually have a rough up bringing. They are exposed to drugs, alcohol, or violence at a young age. Some may even have mental disabilities. It's hard to say that they shouldn't be held accountable for their actions. But it's difficult to severely punish them when they have experienced so much turmoil in their past.
ReplyDeleteFor my opinion this kids needs another chance to change so maybe rehabilitation or a prison with the same age group will do.I don't agree for kids to be sent to the adult prison because it will make them more exposed to violence that will lead them to be criminals in the future.
ReplyDeleteHi Serena,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this blog and your interest in media's role in relation to violence. Great to see you including some quotes and citing those quotes correctly. Let's take a look at how you are using the quotes. Here's a passage from your blog:
He believes if the medias main stories weren’t always to do with violence, the violence rate would decrease, “A tragedy that has already occurred obviously cannot be prevented by any actions taken now. Therefore, actions will prevent harm only to the extent that the events they can effectively head off are likely to be repeated in the future” (212).
My first suggestion is a technical one. Rather than marrying the quote to the previous statement with a comma, start a new sentence and include what I call a signal phrase:
According to Kleck, "A tragedy that has already occurred obviously cannot be prevented by any actions taken now" (212). You used a longer quote, but this will do for the example.
The second point I'd like to make is. Are you sure this quote supports the point you are making? Make sure there is a strong correlation between the quote and your claim.
Kleck's major argument is that a mass school shooting leads to some fairly knee-jerk and irrelevent regulations. The media is at fault because it creates a frenzy that leads to bad policy-making. According to Kleck, "A tragedy that has already occurred obviously cannot be prevented by any actions taken now" (212). Further, he explains that the nature of school shootings are extremely unique and can rarely be anticipated, let alone prevented.
I hope my comments have been helpful. Thank you for your work on this blog and I look forward to reading more of your commentary. Grades are in the book.