Possible source for proposal

Source :  Raney, Arthur, and Anthony Depalma. "The Effect of Viewing Varying Levels and Contexts of Violent Sports Programming on Enjoyment, Mood, and Perceived Violence." Mass Communication & Society, 9.3 (2006): 321-338.

In this article it describes a case study in which the purpose was to evaluate the relationship between the levels and contexts of sports violence and viewer enjoyment, mood, and perceptions of violence. The researches found that viewers enjoyed the violent play more than non-violent, enjoyed the unscripted violent play more than the unscripted, and found the scripted violent play to be less suspenseful and more violent than the unscripted play. People who watched the scripted violence reported less positive moods especially female and non-participants. Unscripted violence refers to presentations of violence that naturally occur in the course of the traditional violent sports like hard checks, rough hits. Scripted violence refers to violent depictions found in the increasingly popular sports such as fighting competitions and wrestling. The researchers found that men tend to report greater enjoyment for combative sports (e.g., football, soccer, boxing), whereas women report greater enjoyment for stylistic sports (gymnastics, figure skating, and tennis). More specifically, enjoyment for men increased the more violent, active, and dangerous they perceived the sport to be. Women, however, tended to enjoy sports that they saw as elegant more than those that were seen as violent or dangerous.

Response:

I think this article can be very useful for my possible topic of the banning of violent sports. I can see how the finding of this study can be true because in most households the men are usually more interested in sports and set aside two hours on Sundays to watch the games. There’s sports year round because as the study said, “early three out of every four Americans claim to be at least “fairly interested” in watching sports” so no matter what time of year someone will always watch. As far as violent sports such as boxing and football in my personal experience when we have family gatherings to watch these type of events, in a room of 10 men there are at most 2 women. Now it could be because they are uninterested in sports overall but the study shows that it could be linked to the fact that women enjoy stylistic sports. I think this article can support the side that it should not be banned because it provides enjoyment and increases mood meaning it doesn’t promote aggression because if it did then it would’ve been noted. The findings were very interesting and informational in this case study.