Freedom of speech and expression Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Freedom of speech and expression - Essay Example For the purpose of our essay we will mainly discuss two famous cases: Ozzy Osbourne's song "Suicide Solution"1 and Ice-T's "Cop Killer"2. We will focus on the aspects of the songs that caused such an outrage and we will try to replace the song in the cultural context to explain and understand their link with the freedom of speech and expression issue. In 1981 was released Ozzy Osbourne's first solo album "Blizzard of Ozz". This album included a song called Suicide Solution. The song was originally aimed to talk about alcohol as a deadly substance. The song was written by Osbourne after his friend Bon Scott, lead-singer of AC/DC, had died as a result of alcohol abuse. The word Solution should be understood as mixture and not as answer as we will see later. On October 26, 1984, during the night, John McCollum shot himself in the head with a .22 caliber handgun. He was 19 years old. It was reported that when he entered the room, the coroner found headphones on John's head. He had been listening for most of the evening to Ozzy Osbourne's albums "Diary of a madman" and "Blizzard of Ozz" in the living room. He then went in his bedroom, listened to Osbourne's album "Speak of the devil" and shot himself". The fo The following year, in October John's parents filed suit against Ozzy Osbourne and his record company CBS on charges of negligence, products liability and intentional misconduct, claiming that Osbourne's song had incited their son to commit suicide. The case was first dismissed on August 7, 1986, by The Superior Court of Los Angeles County. The McCollums appealed arguing that Osbourne's songs were containing themes such as satanic worshiping and death. They precisely targeted the song Suicide Solution because of his lyrics "suicide is the only out" and of supposedly masked lyrics not printed in the album as "why try, why try, get the gun and try it, shoot, shoot, shoot" The music was constitutionally protected as decided by the Court of Appeals which ruled that Osbourne's music could not be seen as a cause of the suicide. The first step of this decision was to declare that the music was protected by the First Amendment but then consider that freedom of speech is not absolute. An investigation was conducted by the court to explore the possibilities of Osbourne's music encouraging John McCollum's suicide. In regards of the Brandenburg test, the Court decided that Osbourne's music could not be accountable for the decision taken by McCollum. It is interesting to recall the declaration of the Court of Appeals: "freedom of speech is not absolute". When one shall consider that freedom of speech and expression must be considered as the possibility to declare anyone of his feelings, we will have to precise this interpretation. Alexis de Tocqueville, the philosopher, in "Democracy in America"3 explained that when a person expresses an opinion which may seem unpopular, he may be subjected to the rejection of his community. He qualifies freedom of speech as a civil liberty rather then a fundamental liberty. In Osbourne's case, we are directly confronted to that type of differentiation. He and his song are rejected because they do not fit with the common thoughts of what music -

Decision Making Process Model in Real Life Marketing Essay

Decision Making Process Model in Real Life Marketing - Essay Example The process involves a number of factors that influence the decision making of an individual and includes the various stages that a shopper goes through while purchasing a product thus outlining the flow of activities (both physical and psychological) from the beginning to the end. The interview conducted in this certain scenario was that of an individual who had decided to buy a new pull-out sofa to add to the furniture in their house. The individual needed the sofa for visiting individuals who wanted to spend the night and thus the subject was very particular about getting this particular type of sofa. By studying the decision making process that took place one is able to identify the various variables that were taken into consideration as well as other influences that a played a part in the formation of the final decision. The stages that the consumer went through during this process included: This was the first stage and the consumer identified the problem that they were faced with (the need that they had) and what was required in order to solve the issue once it has been pointed out (Blythe, 2008). In this case the main need of this particular consumer was the provision of a place to sleep for overnight guests that would not take up too much space due to the size of the individual’s living quarters. This could effectively rule out the need for a bed as another one would not be able to fit in the apartment and thus a pull-out sofa arose as the best alternative option on offer. The main issue was ensuring that the needs of the consumer will be satisfactorily met by the purchase of the product that they had in mind (Cheng, Luckett & Schulz, 2003).