Hunter Gibson

UWRT 1102-017

Mr. Douglas

February 23, 2017

Annotated Bibliography

Gibson, Daniel. Web Interview. 9 March 2017.

My personal interview will be with my brother who is currently studying abroad in Japan.

My brother is a criminal justice and Japanese double major and is currently attending university

in Nagoya, Japan. The primary purpose of this personal interview will be to help me compare the

cultures of the United States and Japan. Japan is known to be less violent than the United States

and I plan on analyzing certain aspects of their culture to see if that is what causes this difference

in violent tendencies.

The primary content of the interview will be the prevalence of sports in Japan, the most

popular forms of media and what they are like, and social etiquette. It is fairly common

knowledge that American sports are quite aggressive and that they can be seen as contributing to

the overall violent nature of Americans. I would thus like to see how dominant sports-like

activities are in Japanese culture. The most popular forms of media that I mentioned will consist

of the most common TV shows, games, or whatever is largely popular and accepted by the

general populace. American media can be rather vulgar and violent, as well as being tame and

sincere. I plan on seeing if other countries possess this moral spectrum for their media or if they

shift away from things that could be seen as immoral. The last thing I plan on learning about is
the overall social interaction among the citizens. I want to know if they treat each other with

disregard or if they treat each other with compassion and kindness.

Smead, Howard. Why Americans Are So Violent Howard Smead,

http://www.howardsmead.com/

Howard Smead is a History Professor at the University of Maryland. He has authored

several books about the black civil rights movement in the U.S. and teaches courses about 20th

century American social history and the civil rights movement. In this article, Smead discusses

several violent instances in American History. Whether it be modern incidents such as the 2012

Aurora shooting in Colorado or the mass lynchings during the civil rights movement. He further

discusses the moral compass of Americans and how they are more or less capable of constantly

committing atrocious acts and walking away from them having gained nothing. He points out

things such as Americans always convincing themselves that they are these well-behaved people

or how some try to pin the blame on scapegoats such as politics, religion, and even forms of

media.

I plan on using this article to explore Americas past and our violent actions. I plan on

analyzing these past events to see if this sense of violence has been embedded in our morals

system since Americas founding. I plan on highlight on the events mentioned in the article such

as modern shootings and terroristic acts and the civil rights movement. This article will also help

me further define American morals to see if they contribute to the aggressive nature of our

country.
Tough Guise. Dir. Sut Jhally. Media Education Foundation, 1999. Film.

Tough Guise 2. Dir. Jeremy Earp. Media Education Foundation, 2013. Film.

This 1999 film and its successor Tough Guise 2 discuss the ideal image of man in

American society and how that contributes to violence in America. Both films examine modern

events in American history such as mass shootings, gun violence, violence involving women, and

American militarism. The films discuss how violence in America can be derived from the ideal

male that our country exemplifies. They also discuss that in order for us to overcome the

violence in America, we have to eradicate the stereotype for men. They also highlight certain

parts of our culture that try to mold males into the ideal such as video games, sports culture,

movies, and even pornographic material.

These films helped me further define the American moral system and our leniency

towards violent actions. The two films helped me further see how the American male is molded

and groomed to be this violent and seemingly macho man. I plan on highlighting the traits of this

ideal male and the forms of media that contribute to the creation and application of this model

male.

Lance, Larry M. and Ross Charlyn E. Views of Violence in American Sports: A Study of

College Students. College Student Journal Jun2000, Vol. 34 Issue 2, p191.

SPORTDiscus. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.

This scholarly article was about a study performed on college students from a

southeastern university to see their views on general sports and intramural sports. The article

discusses the social learning theory as well as the social exchange theory. They further break

down results of the study of the percentage that the students had on violence in society as a
whole and in sports. On average, 50-80% of people either agreed or strongly agreed to the

involvement of violent activities in the questions asked. Many of the questions were simple such

as asking if violence is likely to occur if it is suggested as being part of the game.

The purpose of using this article is to highlight the view of college students of the

prevalence of violence in America sports. The statistical data will be useful as concrete proof for

the views of these students that participate in sports themselves. This study will help me see if

sports in America contribute to violence in the U.S. in that sports are held in such a high regard

in our culture. This also helps me tie in the argument of the ideal male mentioned in the previous

source in that 88% of the participants were male and how the source itself mentions how

violence in sports can be caused by the ideal male.

Reflection

The first step I wanted to take was to narrow down my topic. As I knew this was such a

broad topic, I was trying to think of how to close in on a smaller scale. I decided to focus on the

cultural aspects after I figured out how I was going to do my live source. I was locked between

doing a Political Science professor and my brother who is studying abroad when I decided to

focus on the cultural aspects that lead to violence in the U.S. Using the thought of the interview

as the groundwork and backbone of my question, I started to look for sources that mentioned the

cultural elements that affect American society and causes us to be violent. With cultural elements

in mind, I decided to look for sources that focused on the more prominent types of media in our

society. This led to the finding of the study on America sports and even on the film discussing the

ideal male that our society believes in. The two films were probably the best source I used in that

they discuss several forms of media and even society and how they promote this true violent

image that is considered okay. The film made me realize that many forms of our violence stems
from our view how certain people should act and how it is okay for them to be violent.