The first article talks about the concept of branding a condition which the author describes as a way to help brand managers and clinical community solve certain problems and find solutions by staying focused on a single story. One of the main author’s claim is that if branding done appropriately, the product can better own customer perceptions about evolving or existing disease states and define new segments where needs of the patient have not been met yet. The condition branding may serve the companies, what was presented on the example when a name for an unpleasant death was invented, and it can also enhance the relationship between a doctor and patient when stating a name for a condition which is uneasy to start talking about because of a feeling of embarrassment of the patient.
Generally, I think the idea of inventing a branding for a certain condition is mainly positive for companies and their managers because giving a terrific name to otherwise boring condition, as shown, makes money. I like the idea of the other effect which helps people talk about awkward conditions because not only it simplifies the doctor-patient relationship, but it also simplifies and speeds the beginning of the condition treatment.
The second article “What College Rankings Really Tell Us” discusses the problematics of ranking systems. The author claims that ranking systems are important, yet we have to be aware of various proxies when considering rankings and that each attribute can have a different weight, and so can affect the order severely. Many ranking systems are trying to be comprehensive and heterogenous, as is shown by the author when presenting the example of the college ranking system but the truth is that it is the factor which we consider the most important what effects the final order. However, this cannot be viewed from ranking systems published in magazines or news.
From my point of view, the article makes a very good point. I think many people do not realize how distorted ranking systems are and simply repeat what they see in the news regardless the attributes and their weight in the system.
RWS-510 Rhetoric and Culture 