Week 7

     I found the article called "Coercion" by Douglas Rushkoff to be very interesting. Rushkoff spoke about the media and this generation and how companies advertise their products to make them attractive to their customers. Advertisements are such a huge part of a company and the measure of their success. Rushkoff speaks on the competitive part of advertising and how companies go back and forth fighting with each other with parodies or something of the like. He spoke on how companies use irony as well to distort our thinking process when it comes to buying a product and on why we should purchase it. This is what coercion is- "convincing a person to lie to himself by any means necessary" (5). Rushkoff states how people search for truth and authenticity  in the "increasingly disconnected virtual experience, advertisers seize on the opportunity ot help us delude ourselves into thinking we haven't really lost touch" (50). This article is so true by saying our world is distorted into buying products based on how they will make us feel, when in reality, they may make us happy or content for the moment, but it will be a fleeting moment and will not last. Advertisements do such a great job of pushing that factor of needed that one thing (their product) to make us happy, but they are doing it just as much as the next company.
     The article "Rhetoric of the Image" by Ronald Barthes also can be realated to the previous article. Barthes speaks on the messages of a certain image. The three messages are linguistic message, coded iconic message, and a non- coded iconic message. This has to do with what one sees when looking at a picture, and what happens at the same time. When a person sees a picture, we usually describe it as a word, or the structure of the image. We also consider it a literal message or symbolic message. Barthes concludes on saying that the "literal image is denoted and the symbolic image is connoted" (3). This can be related to advertisting because when we see an image on advertising we usually relate it to a word. We first relate emotionally to us to see if it has any effect in that aspect, but also relate it to us mentally to realize why or how we need that product. Barthes explains our thought process once we see the image.
     The third article was by Karl Marx and was called "Capital: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production". I never really can fully understand Marx, so after reading a little bit into his article I obviously was lost. He does talk about commodities though and how they are a value in use depending on the person's perspective. I thought this can relate to our previous articles and how the companies are selling their commodities, and people purchase them based on how they rate their value in their own lives. Marx considers commodities as mysterious, and in a way so do I. Depending how the companies market their own commodities depends if they can speak themselves, and if the images use words. In a way, all of these articles can come together. It is about the marketing and advertising of your products that make the products attract and sell consumers.