RA 5: Paper A Source

http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=abb127cd3f37b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1
I found a lot of research for the affects of viewing violence on violent behavior. To find a persuasive article instead of a purely academic article I searched the LDS.org database. Most of their articles use research to back up their own personal or divine opinions about violence. M Russell Ballard writes many talks about avoiding violence in the media. His audience is usually LDS adults with younger impressionable children. Watching violence for entertainment is harmful for any person, but he wants fathers especially to avoid this vice because children follow a father’s example. I chose this as an example to cite because it had all the STAR criteria. It had enough appeal to emotion with a strong testimony offered and various consequences to family and individual guaranteed for continuing the trend. His authority is both scientific and divine. The argument is logical and deliberate offering conclusions to certain attitudes and behaviors. His enthymeme presented is that people who watch violence for entertainment will fall away from Christ because people who watch violence for entertainment are in the world and of the world. The examples he used are accurate and relevant to the argument that watching violence is not wholesome and will not lead to Christ, and in fact, offends the Lord. One quote in particular strikes a good point with his audience: “I am convinced by a vast amount of research that the images, fantasies, and models which we are repeatedly exposed to in [entertainment] affect the self-image and, later, the behavior of nearly all young people and adults too. The amount of violence a child sees at 7 predicts how violent he will be at 17, 27, and 37. … Children’s minds are like banks—whatever you put in, you get back 10 years later with interest. He said that violent television teaches children, step-by-step, how to commit violent acts, and it desensitizes them to the horror of such behavior and to the feelings of victims.”