Beckham Lecture Impressions

I attended Dr. Nicholas Mason's lecture entitled “The Rise of Mass-Media Puffery and the ‘Death’ of Literature in Georgian Britain.”  I am glad I went because it was definitely worth the time I spent there.  I have often considered going into the field of writing myself and hearing this lecture definitely made me think more about advertising in our modern world.  Something that really struck me was that the puffery and buttering up of advertising goes on on websites like Amazon.com.  I checked out this website after hearing the lecture in an attempt to focus on Dr. Mason's point and apply it to real life.  I also looked at Barnes and Noble.com, which was very interesting to me since I am a writer for that company.  I even looked at Sparknotes.com, which is the website I write for.  I found that there was some of this going on as there were reviews from editors and readers on all of these websites.  I don't know that I condemn it so much, though.  I think that these are lucrative industries and there isn't anything wrong with advertising or in trying to make a work look good.  It's up to the consumer to make a good buy.  All in all, I was interested in the idea that advertising does have this puffery involved and I'm definitely on the lookout for it now, especially being bombarded with it the way that I am.  I hope I can use this information to further my understanding of writing, publishing, and even advertising in journalism.