– ideology in the media 

Commodity Fetishism 

Fetish – defined as an inanimate object worshipped for its supposed magical powers or had a spirit inside 

Freudian – use of the word fetishism defines a form of sexual desire is linked to an object. 

This is not how Marx defined fetishism but frauds definition does come into play later!

Object – commodity 

Exchange of commodity/ object is to obscure the hierarchy to transform your position within society – social status 

Karl marx on alienation –

19th century – workers only had their labour to sell

Capitalism alienation – factory workers cannot afford what they are making but are for the people who pay next to nothing for their income therefore the people from the commodity become alienated 

Fetish – the items they cant afford 

 The commodity embodies the relationship between the workers and the capitalism in his employment of the worker ….

Alienation the … 

Reinfication – is when abstract thing is rendered real or when the subjective is rendered objective 

Example 1. Car – presented with women – male sexual virility 

Its shiny looks nice – expensive – social status 

Example 2.Laptop – abstract notion having an apple is for creative and liberal thinking people – this idea is stuck with society 

Adam Curtis  Happy victim 2003 the photographers gallery of people who need these commodities that have the power to change and give him power – designer trainers 

Happiness machines – relationship from freud and his nephew Bernays 

Jump between necessities and want 

Socks with holes – replacing with designer ones 

Bernard – satisfying the masses with items they don’t even need – started mass consumer production for example adverts, employed psychologists to tell about specific products, but was acknowledged as just help, influenced ads for cars to sexualise men they are more attractive 

Use propaganda for war you can use it for peace  

Men had created a` taboo of women smoking in public 

Cigarettes mean to women – cigarettes resemble the male genitals and some want their own according to psychiatrist

Bernard – women smoking makes them more powerful which has still stuck today 

Irrational little objects/commodities that you think you need still have a way of making you feel power 

He connected the emotional need for objects and the power they gave 

Linked to the scary idea of over production for goods 

If visual culture is the continuous displacement/ appearance of meaning in the field of vision and the visible, how can visually culture reinforce the fetishism of the commodity 

Refresh on semiotics 

• myth, how signifiers – sounds and signifiers concepts are connected together by the process of signification 
• Bathes suggested that images are signs that convey a meaning beyond their intent use 
• Image of a car it doesn’t convey just a car but abstract status such as masculinity and social status depending on the car 
• Conotating – has extra added value, shiny, women, big car, extra meaning – masculine sexuality 
• Chanel as a commodity – a smell, is the smell chance is it inherently sexy glamour, yes because is  constructed through metaphors, its creating fake news 

Fait accompli 

Debord,, guy, 1967 society of the spectacle 

Human relationships are no longer reinified 

Essana O’neil – her reveal of construct was a spectacle – bikini and breakfast 

• reflecting reality of life all that was once directly lived has become more mere representational 

Reason we take photos, the spec transforms human relation into objectifyed relations among images 

= alienation 

Not about living its about having 

Matrix – the system is what keeps the elites in the power making their position unassailable 

The film is so effective as we are blind to its operation we are so emerged we don’t realise how its to do with social control 

 The sum of all our actions dreams and ideas and interactions is the spectacle so we cannot easily conceive of alternateives 

By unconsciously alienating ourselves from ezchother and the world we are made into willing, complaint slaves to the capitalist system