Media Violence - Informal Tone

This editorial was incredibly long, thus making it really hard to be persuaded. I felt around half way through I finally understood what the author was trying to say and then in the next two or three paragraphs he/she had just completely lost me. Although towards the end of the editorial the author really seemed to get his point across, I fully understood what he was trying to say. This editorial was boring and didn’t keep me interested. Overall In the end though the author saved himself and thankfully got his/her point across to me, and somewhat persuaded me. The author did though have a few rhetorical questions, and did engage the reader a couple times because he/she used words like “we, us, etc)

At first the author talked about Media Violence was a cause of all the violence in this world and he used the example of the Virginia Tech Killer. He said how he probably got most of his sick plans and ideas from some Korean or Asian films. His point was most people get their bad ideas from Media Violence. After that he started talking about how media violence is not the soul cause of violence in society. The author says how media violence only amplifies the violent thoughts already in peoples head. In other words you don’t wake up one day and watch somebody get shot on television then decide to go on a crazy massacre. For example the Virginia tech Killer already had a sick mind and had a whole lot of problems, so he probably all ready had all these thoughts in his mind.

I would say that this is definitely an informal tone editorial because throughout the editorial, the author uses an active voice a couple times, for example he says “If we take most of the exciting research…” The author uses a passive voice, and also the authors point were not shown clearly where in a formal tone the points would have to be clear and stated confidently. The author also refers to the reader in second person pronouns (you, your, etc). The author talks in second person a couple times which makes it pretty informal. Using a lot of contractions would make an editorial informal and that is exactly what the author of this editorial has done. Therefore overall this editorial is completely informal.