Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins

This week in my Journalism class we learned all about copyrights and trademarks and how they affect companies and the way people are allowed to do thing and use trademarked or copy written pieces.  As we discussed these topics, the idea of censorship came into the discussion.  Censorship is a way in which a group of people attempt to censor a certain piece of media that seems obscene or offensive or that goes against the groups morals.  My blog post this week is to give an example of attempted censorship and give my opinion on it.  So here we go.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono released the album, “Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins” in 1968.  The front of the album cover showed a completely nude John Lennon alongside a completely nude Yoko Ono and the back showed both nude from the back.  When the album was released people were outraged that an album cover like this would be able to be sold in the public market.  Distributers were forced to cover all the albums with brown paper, showing only Lennon’s and Ono’s faces.  Some of the albums were even impounded as being obscene.  Over 30,000 in New Jersey alone were taken away from stores and impounded.  

There was an attempt here to censor this album just because of the the explicit nudity on the entire album cover.  Nudity especially back in the sixties was still considered somewhat sacred and so this was a huge shock for everyone who saw the cover.  John Lennon was the first male celebrity to expose himself like this in any form and so some people probably didn’t like seeing a famous male “role model” naked.  Just the idea for anyone of showing their naked body, even though we all have one, to the entire world people are uncomfortable with.  Parents don’t want to have their children exposed and they don’t want to have to look at two naked people every time they want to listen to music.  Nudity all together is a very iffy subject and something that most people are not to comfortable with.  

My personal belief on this issue of censorship is that this album cover kinda pushed the limit a little.  Nudity doesn’t bother me at all and neither does the cover, but I kinda don’t understand why Lennon and Ono wanted to do this for one and why they thought it would be okay to put this in the public eye. Another pose where they were still nude but covered up might I have been a better option and not had as much controversy?  Nudity is a very iffy subject in today’s and the 1960s society and this photo and album cover seemed a little inappropriate for the public view.  Both Lennon and Ono we not mindful of other people’s opinions and paid the price.  Normally something would be opposed by at least one person but this because of its obscene nature, most everyone found it offensive. I can see how they thought of it as art, which it is, but by putting in the public eye it was went from art to obscene.  It was was just not a good idea on their part and censoring it was the best idea for it.

This type of media would never be published in today’s society, except for private use only.  Censorship is responsible for that and in that way it is a good thing!

Clostridium difficile

 For my blog post this week, our task is to analyze a health or science article from an online mainstream newspaper.  In our class on Thursday we discussed how health and science articles influence decisions we make and what types of ploys the authors use to makes the reader believe what they are saying about the subject is credible.

            I decided for this assignment that I would choose The New York Times as my online mainstream newspaper.  For my article I chose one entitled, “Test Drug Does Well Against Hospital Infection”, written by Andrew Pollack.  This article was about a new drug developed to help treat an intestinal superbug that spreads through hospitals and makes patients very ill and sometimes can even lead to death.  This new antibiotic helps treat a bacterium, Clostridium difficile, which can cause severe diarrhea and even in some cases removal of the colon.  Thousands of Americans are killed every year by this bacterium, but more violent strains have been found and doctors fear the bacterium will continue to spread and kill more people. 

            In the clinical trial of this new drug, ninety percent of the patients were successful cleared of the infection, but the other ten had relapses of the infection and required more medical attention.  There were two drugs used in this clinical trial, Vancocin, an approved drug, and an unnamed drug produced by Optimer Pharmaceuticals that is not approved yet, but approval would be based on the clinical trial.  The clinical trial seemed to favor the Optimer drug, having more success rates in curing the infection and a lesser rate of relapse.  The Vancocin is already on the market and had recorded sales of $182.3 million dollars in the first nine months of 2008.  The Optimer drug still has one more Phase of clinical trials to go through before applying for approval for sale by the Food and Drug Administration.  The final trial is set to be complete at the end of 2009. 

            The reporter of this article I felt did a good job at answering the questions, anyone or myself would have.  The only questions that were not answered that I thought needed to be were; what do the drugs that fight that bacterium actually do? Are there any side effects to the drug? Are these drugs for hospital use only or are they over the counter?  These were just some questions I had but overall I felt that the author wrote the article very well, just those couple of questions I believe should have been answered but even without them the article made sense.

            The article did contain some sources, a doctor, a representative from the Optimer Pharmaceutical company and the University of Massachusetts.  I felt like the sources used were credible.  The doctor seemed to have some insight into the bacterium and what it does and Optimer representative didn’t have much to say but her title, senior director for biology, made me believe that what she was saying was credible.  The University of Massachusetts seemed the least credible with no actual quotes from a representative, but the little bit about the subject the university presented seemed to be good information.  Overall the sources seemed credible but more probably could have been used.  The article did seem to lack expert opinions and ideas but the sources quoted appeared to be credible.

            This article had just enough information and sources to get the point across.  It was informative and taught me something new.  I hope that these drugs stop this bacterium and it will not become a hospital epidemic.

 

Milk is Milk

So this week in my Mass Media and Society class we have participation blog post, which we don’t get graded on but a blog that we can have a little fun with.  Our assignment is to explore an online branded community.  An online branded community, is a website devoted to one particular subject.  For my community I chose the website, whitegoldiswhitegold.com.  This online branded community, is for everyones favorite drink, milk.

When I first went onto the website, I was a little confused as to what I would be encountering.  The opening page seems more like a rock band website than a community about milk.  But then I came to realize that the way, milk, has branded itself was as a rock star.  This also was interesting to me because I began to wonder why.  As a thought about the question I continued to look around the website.  On the main page, the feeling was very serene and calm, which I thought was a little weird.  Only in the sense that it really had nothing to do with a rock band.  As I clicked on icons and other links through out the website I found that it had games and videos and other information but nothing about the product it was trying to sell or get people to drink.  There was little to no information on milk.  The whole reason this online branded community was created.  I found the games and videos a little cheesy and not very interesting.  The website as a whole did not impress me.

I have to say that I was a little engaged by the website that the beginning but after I explored it further I did not understand why a company would created a website like this.  I think the company’s marketing, with using a rock star, was really good and will get more kids to listen, but it just wasn’t a good branded community for me.  

I love milk and grew up on it, so this website does not change my feelings toward the product.  This website is just another way for more people to drink milk, as a healthy alternative to soda or juice, but it would not let anyone know that.  It is just another website full of cheesy games and videos that have little or nothing to do with the product they are trying sell or promote.  

I feel like there are better online branded communities out there that promote their product better than whitegoldiswhitegold.com does.  This website, yes engaging at first, does not make me or most other people want to go out and buy or drink it.  That is only my opinion, but I guess that it is working for the company because White Gold is all over the TV and now the internet!