The Media And Its Effects On The Global World

Since the 1930’s, the Walt Disney Company is known for producing characters, images, as well as stories which have created happiness for audiences around the world. This corporation has grown from a small cartoon studio run by famous Walt and Roy Disney to a million dollar business. In Janet Wasko’s novel, “Understanding Disney”, Wasko explains Disney as corporation calling it “The Disney Empire”. Throughout her novel, Wasko argues that Disney is set up like a typical profit seeking corporation, as well as creates and manufactures fantasy, and lastly re-invents folk tales by “Americanising” them.

Disney is a lie. Why? This corrupt company brainwashes consumers into handing over their hard-earned money in order to purchase overpriced merchandise, all while under a facade of innocence and happiness. Fairy-tale endings and a cheerful mouse might represent Disney’s projected values, but underneath the exterior lay indicators of Disney’s corrupt ideals. Common people are deceived into handing over their hard-earned money to corrupt companies in order to purchase overpriced products. The power that these companies gain allows these businesses to control, to a certain extent, politics and influence political decisions. These companies will not hesitate to fire American workers in order to save a handful of dollars and stifle any trace of dissent. Therefore, large corporate companies should stop exploiting and manipulating consumers for profit.

Background: The history of Walt Disney, and the Disney Corporation, is one shrouded in admiration and accolades for the accomplishment of the American dream. Walt Disney himself is an icon for the American work ethic, i.e., hard work pays off. He is seen as a Horatio Alger, "rags to riches," success story. Beginning his work in animation in the 1920s, Walt Disney gained fame worldwide for his films and theme parks. But Walt Disney created more than films and theme parks. By infusing them with an ideological stance glorifying "the American way of life," his brand of democracy and conservatism, he created a cultural institution. The moralistic stance of his enterprise became common knowledge and it is said that his 1933 version of Three Little Pigs was the last of his cartoons in which the film’s moral messages were open to interpretation [3]

Prompt #1 Disney is a company that uses stereotypes in order to make money. Society enjoy to decide whether something is good or bad for us; therefore, great part of it are specialists critiquing the work of others. For example, you will always see people writing journals about the negative and positive aspects of a work - entertainment, publicity, or information. This happens because these people have the need to feel superior to the ones that do the work they are critiquing. Disney is one of the principal companies that are criticized by the society because Disney is also one of the biggest companies in the world.

The Disney Corporation is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise with five business segments: media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products and interactive media. (Disney Corporate, 2009). This company did not become one of the leading corporations in the world without hard work, an extreme dedication to the mission and core values of the organization, and the successful application of the four functions of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Many internal and external factors may have a direct impact on the four functions of management like: globalization, ethics, and innovation.

Other than that, each park is designed and structured towards the country’s culture. As operations exist outside the United States, Disney had to consider and accept the cultural differences between their home market of the United States and different international markets. A key theory that assisted Disney in global expansion to Shanghai, China is the understanding of Hofstede’s cultural factors which focuses on six cultural dimensions; power distance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term/short-term orientation, and indulgence/restraint (Steers, 2016). “Hofstede compares culture to the “software of the mind” that differentiates one group or society from another.” (Steers, 2016). Figure 1 illustrates the cultural differences between China and the United States through Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions.

81). The toys they play with, the shows we watch on TV and the books that we read together as a family are shaped by our culture. Culture is outlined as a groups shared commonalities, beliefs, norms and behaviors (Chambliss & Eglitis, 2016, p. 56). Exposing my children to the love of Disney, particularly Mickey Mouse, has shaped the culture of our family. Not only do the kids have Mickey Mouse plates and utensils to eat dinner with, Austin also sings the “Hotdog Dance” song every time we pass a stack of Huggies on the diaper isle at the store thanks to the image of Mickey Mouse on the box, however it doesn’t stop there. The wide social acceptance of Mickey Mouse into American culture since 1928 has even influenced our family’s first real vacation together as we decided on a Disney cruise, rather than any other cruise line, knowing that seeing the character in person would leave our son feeling

The Disney Corporation has had both positive and negative effects on American society. Disney has majorly affected both the youth and adults in America by way they interact with each other, what they expect from each other, and how parents bring up their youth in harsh and unrealistic expectations according to Disney. Disney has fostered a strong sense of imagination in the past, present and future youth of America. This sense of imagination is necessary to the development of children when it comes to success in life and self-confidence. The Disney Corporation knows how to work it’s audience for a profit and mastering that skill has allowed Disney to accumulated billions by advertising and selling fantasies to young children and their parents. It’s also these very ideas that influence what Americans believe our government and policies should be founded on. In “The Mouse That Roared” the author states “Education is never innocent, because it always presupposes a particular view of citizenship, culture, and society. And yet it is this very appeal to innocence, bleached of any semblance of politics, that has become a defining feature in Disney culture and pedagogy” (Giroux 31) This quote defines Disney at large. Disney has created the idea of ‘imagination’ in American society and perpetuates it in everything America does and influences everything America stands. In everyday American life, politics and business, The Disney Corporation has a hand in it.

When a company enters a foreign market, the company’s management team should work hand in hand with managers from the home country to have a better understanding of what the culture is like. In this case, I feel that Disney did not do that. One telling point is that Disney changed its leadership from American to French some fifteen times. The second point about the leadership of Disney was that the American and French leadership styles were often confronted. Another point is that the company did not have the support of Francois Mitterrand, the French president.

A critique of this argument was made by John Tomlinson where he notes that discussions of cultural domination often locate the media as central to cultural imperialism (Tomlinson, 1991, p.29). It seems that when we reach a higher level of Globalization the enemy of the difference is the transnational system itself (Jameson, 1998, p.74). This all come to the fact that Hollywood films playing in European cinemas or in television makes a clear distinction between media products (films, television, radio, books...) and culture (repertoire of a national meaning). In this particular aspect Tomlinson notes that:

Colin Wells Sherry Minkowski Government 12 26 March 2000 Disney’s Influence on American Culture How does one begin to describe a king? As generations change, society calls for new leaders and kings, that will continue to push the boundaries. Steven Watts describes it as: Hollywood’s leading fantasy factory… (187) Disney is much more prominent in society, its impact now lives in every household, as well as a place in everyone’s soul. Behind it all is a thriving business that will out live most humans now and in the future. Steven Watts breaks it down quite simply: Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck embodied a collective desire to escape the pressures of modern life and return to childhood. (127) The escape from reality, which Disney has provided

There are plenty of hotbed issues on how the Disney corporation’s sociological and socio political ideologies are embedded into their products and how they affect children, but very few ask why Disney would place hidden ideologies in their movies/shows. What reasons would Disney have to program children with outdated morals while trying desperately to uphold a model image of innocence? What practices has the disney corporation practiced that some would consider immoral or even illegal? To answer these questions the following issues must be explored in more depth: The history and actions of Disney from its inceptions to the present,Walt’s strict “moral” code along with the legacy he left behind, the policies of Disneyland

When you first meet someone, what are the first things that you notice? Sex? Race? Or maybe the brands of clothing that indicate social status? Human beings as a society judge and categorize others, labeling those who stray from social norm as weird or strange. Who are we to make these judgments and where did these ideas of right and wrong come from? The Walt Disney Company plays an important role in depicting who and what people should and shouldn’t be. Every aspect of Disney, including movies, TV shows, and products, are supported by most of the world for entertainment and seemingly honest messages of innocence and magic. Beneath the image of innocence, Disney is also a media empire, a global conglomerate consisting of

"Cultures are dynamic and change occurs when resistance slowly yields to acceptance so the basis for resistance becomes unimportant or forgotten"[2]. Which means that on the part of the European community we are certain to see compromise, but over a period of time. Disney too has to reconcile with the environment it has settled in. We read in the case that Disney does ultimately mend its ways. Making room for continuous change is the best way to go about ones business.

Cultural imperialism, the main focus of globalisation is defined as the domination of culture from some countries to the rest of the world (Tobin, 2016). It could be the cultural goods flow to the other countries, normally from the more influential or stronger countries such as the United States and some Western countries which inculcating their values through the goods or advertisements. For instance, the origin of Starbucks, McDonald’s, and