Sample Argumentation Speech Outline

Topic: Violence in the media affects violence in society – PRO Specific Purposes: To inform classmates how engulfed our society is in the media To inform classmates the amount of violence there actually is on television To persuade classmates that violence in the media affects violence in society Attention Step: Terrorist who kept Americans hostage and would kill and torture one hostage every 15 minutes until the president met his demands.  The terrorist ended up brutally killing 4 individuals. Sounds like a current news story correct? Actually the plot line to one of America’s top television’s shows, 24.  Where is the line between fantasy and reality now? With TV shows, video games, and other forms of media becoming more and more realistic how does one learn the difference between reality and fantasy? Proposition: Violence in the media does in fact affect violence in society Transition: -Violence defined as physical force exerted for the purpose of violating, damaging, or abusing - Media defined as a means of mass communication, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, or television. Need/Problem: Because: Americans are constantly consumed by the media everyday hit by so many different forms of media from the second you wake up - radio alarm, tv, internet, video games each day children spend approximately 6.5 hours with media Transition: what are these children viewing in these 6.5 hours? Because: many television shows and products fall under “comedy” or “drama” however violent images is the majority 61 % of TV programs contain some violence - in these violent shows approximately 75% of the perpetrators received no punishment for their actions 60 – 90% of the most popular video games are based on violent themes By the age of 18 one had witnessed 200,000 separate acts of violence with 40,000 of those acts being murders Transition: with all of these violent actions being bombarded into a young child’s extremely impressionable brain how could it have no effect whatsoever on the children’s actions? Because: media is very influential on ones’ actions Back in 1965 was the first pivotal study which concluded that children’s aggressive acts are partly influenced by what they observed, since violence is a learned action. - Psychologist Albert Bandura’s BoBo Doll experiment, child watch violent acts which went unpunished and then later imitate that aggression on BoBo doll More research has shown that viewing violent acts: - Decreases the viewer’s concerns about the victim’s suffering - Decreases the viewer’s sensitivity to violent acts - Increases the likelihood that viewers will emulate the aggressive acts depicted in the form of media With increasing technology of video games making them more and more realistic are affecting children more than ever since they are actually interacting with the game and performing the violent actions in the game The child then never learns the difference between reality and fantasy and are unable to separate the two in their own lives Government agencies see this as a problem – why would we have the rating system if our society did not think that this was a problem that needs to be dealt with? Reiteration:The media is extremely influential on one’s actions, therefore when violent images are constantly being flashed across the screen it ultimately guide one to perform violent acts, leading to the increased amount of violence in our society today. References: Violence in the Media – Psychologist Help Protect Children from Harmful Effects http://www.psychologymatters.org/mediaviolence.html National Institute on Media and the Family – Children and Media Violence Fact Sheehttp://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_vlent_print.shtml Preventing Violence by Teaching Non-Violent Problem Solving.http://www.psychologymatters.org/bandura2.html