Kids, Guns, and Television

The author of this picture very strategically placed every image within the picture entitled Kids, Guns, and Television.  A child is in front to start the viewer off with a heightened sense of compassion.  The child grabs the viewer’s attention and makes the viewer curious to find out what the rest of the image has to do with the child.  The child’s stance also indicates that he is looking at you with disapproval.  His head is cocked and his arms are crossed.  Also, he is not smiling like one would assume from a child in a picture.  The next biggest image in the picture is the gun within the T.V.  The gun is actually pointing at the child’s head which could make the viewer upset or angry depending on their view of guns.  The gun is placed within the T.V. to show how much violence there now is in television programs.  Everyone knows this is the ways things are nowadays but no one seems to care.  The author obviously cares about the violence and is trying to speak to the world through picture.  He further indicates that violence in television has a negative influence by his choice of background.  He puts the phrase “the tv made me do it” behind the other images so that is the last thing someone would see.  It leaves a strong message.  The violence in T.V. shows has a direct effect on children.  They are influenced by what they see and are tempted to try it even if it is morally wrong.  They see the guns and shooting and think that because it was on T.V. that it is a perfectly acceptable way to control life.  They were raised the way society wanted them to be raised and that could be potentially harmful or even life threatening.  The gun is aimed at the child to suggest that we are killing our children by showing them these shows that promote violence and guns because they will look at that and think it’s the way real life is supposed to be.