In the last few years, the entertainment industry’s influence on the general population has

grown dramatically. Television plays a significant role in the social, political and everyday

life of individuals. It is not just the source of entertainment, but it also plays a crucial role in

spreading information about important events all around the world. On the other hand, a lot of

things shown on television cause debates. The issue of violence on television is one of the

most debated topics in our society. The question whether violent scenes should be shown on

television is discussed by people of different age groups, social class and professions. The

writers, Carl Cannon and John Leonard, based their essays “Honey I Warped the Kids” and

“Why Blame the TV?” on the problem of negative effect of television violence on the

viewers. Although the two essays are based on the same issue, the essay written by Carl

Cannon is more convincing in proving the idea of the negative effect of television violence on

people. The structure of the essay, created by Carl Cannon to illustrate the problem, makes the

points provided by the author more clear and effective. Additionally, the mood presented by

Cannon makes the essay more serious. Also, the evidence, given by author to prove the fact

that the television violence effects the viewers in a negative way, is more material than

Leonard’s.

The structure of the essay “Honey, I Warped the Kids” , written by Carl Cannon, makes

the essay more convenient in a way that it gives the reader the opportunity to follow and

understand each of his ideas. The strategy of examples and illustration is used to describe the

way of studying the effect of television violence on viewers. This method is used by the

author to describe the experiments that were done proving the deficiency of watching violent

scenes on television. As well as example and illustration method, an effective structural

strategy used by Cannon is the cause and effect method. The writer is using this method

talking about the research done in the area of studies of effect of television violence on
people. He describes the experiment and talks about its outcome. This way Cannon indicates

the causes and the effects that lead to a specific result, which is the negative effect of

television violence on the viewers. Based on the experiment done by two Chicago doctors, it

was proven that “ Watching violence on television is the single best predictor of violent or

aggressive behavior later in life, ahead of such commonly accepted factors as parents’

behavior, poverty, and race”. The structure of the essay written by John Leonard “Why

Blame the TV?” differs from the one written by Carl Cannon. Leonard uses narration structure

for his essay. The personal pronoun ‘I” that he is using, makes the reader think that the

author is sharing more of his own opinion and knowledge than talks about the opinion of the

society. He is using description to create a picture of the place of television and the effects of

television violence on society. He is trying to make the reader understand what is the main

idea of his essay, but he is not providing the reader with any specific information that would

make the reader believe that the author is right. All he is trying to do is to base his work on a

common sense.

The moods of the two essays are completely different. Carl Cannon gave his essay a very

serious and formal. He is trying to make the reader understand what are the violent scenes

caring in themselves. The essay was given an objective and reasoned tone. The author is not

using anything else to prove the evidence except of facts and research results. The essay has a

clear thesis and it is well elaborated so it makes it more interesting and easier to the reader

to understand and be convinced in the main idea that the author is carrying to the reader.. John

Leonard created his essay less affair. The writer made the essay sarcastic and less formal. He

is not using any variables or studies. He is building his essay on a common sense and it

makes the essay be more simple and less argumentative for the reader.
The essay written by Carl Cannon is more persuasive than the one written by John Leonard

because Cannon supports his ideas with more material evidence than Leonard. Cannon

provides the reader with statistical information, research results, experimental outcomes and

interviews. Based on the results from an experiment made in 1956, it was proven that even

cartoons can cause negative effect on the psychological health of children. “Children who

watched “Woody Woodpecker” were more likely to hit other children, verbally accost their

classmates, break toys, be disruptive, and engage in destructive behavior during free

play”( Cannon, 559) The author illustrates the other 3000 studies of this issue that were made.

All of them proved that there is a relationship between television violence and the actual

violence in everyday life. As well as the experimental results, Cannon provides the reader

with the opinions of the specialists in this area of studies. He notes that Doctor Leonard Eron

and Rowell Heusmann stated that “Television violence affects youngest of all ages, of both

genders, at all socioeconomic levels and all levels of intelligence”.(Leonard, 560) Providing

the facts and evidence supporting his point of view, the author leaves the reader with no

arguments against the idea of harmful effect of television violence. On the other hand,

Leonard is providing the reader with his argumentations. He believes that “We were a violent

culture before television, from Wounded Knee to the lynching bee, and we’ll be one after all

our children have disappeared by video game into pixels of cyberspace”.(Leonard, 567)

Although there is so much violence on TV, he says that “ Because I watched all those

despised network TV movies, I know more about racism, ecology, homelessness, gun control,

child abuse, gender confusion, date rape, and AIDS than is dreamt of by Katie Roiphe, the

Joyce Maynard of Generation X, or than Hollywood has ever bothered o tell me, especially

about AIDS”. (Leonard, 567) So, he understands that the programs shown on television are

full of violence, but at the same time he is supporting them by saying that they can help to
learn about the life. However, he is not providing any evidence of his point of view. The

writer created the essay based mostly on his own opinion and common sense. He notes that “

Actually watching television, unless it’s C-Span, is usually more interesting than the

proceeding of Congress”. (Leonard, 564) But he is not trying to argue his point. The author is

not indicating if it is just his own point of view or he got that information from a particular

source. The author indicates that “In fact, there is less violence on network television than

there used to be; because of ratings, it’s mostly sitcoms”. He is stating it as a fact, but there is

no evidence to support this information. So, as the essay written by John Leonard is not

supported by any facts it is hard to trust a source that is just based on the common sense and

personal opinion.

The essay written by Carl Cannon is more effective as it gives the reader the information,

which was provided by scientific recourses and checked. The information found in the essay

makes the reader see the negative effects that the television violence causes. It proves the fact

that the more violent scenes are watched in movies, television shows or any other program,

the more harm it causes to the psychological health of general population.