“The…homogenization of consumption, merchandising, and emotional labor… used more broadly to describe the processes of stripping a real place or event of its original character and repackaging it in a sanitized format.”
Disney markets themselves as a producer of magic and a bringer of joy.Their image as the epitome of pure, whimsical fun seems to be working. With revenues upwards of $10 billion, Walt Disney Company is America’s largest transnational media conglomerate as of 2013.
However, Disney has had its fair share of public criticism. Some feel Disney’s ostensibly innocent films engender harmful ideas in children’s minds with negative racial and gender undertones. In the 2002 documentary “Mickey Mouse Monopoly”, Disney is accused of “hiding behind innocence” as a “fantasy that never needs to be questioned”. However, Michael Eisner, Disney’s CEO until 2002, boldly summarized their true purpose by stating: “We have no obligation to make history. We have no obligation to make art… To make money is our only objective.”
Disney’s breadth of media control makes this information more alarming. Under its ownership lies ABC Networks, A&E Networks, ESPN… and until 2005, even the Anaheim Ducks. They’re also the parent company of Baby Einstein. Talk about starting early on the marketing.
Thanks to the upsurge in globalization, Disney’s international impact is flourishing, but it’s only one part of Western media conglomerates’ massive, “near-monopoly” global media dominance. Western culture is perpetuated through more than just Disney films. It overpowers pop culture, music, and even books.
When people are submerged in such enormous volumes of media distributed by such a small concentration of firms, there is the risk of media companies publishing distorted (or disneyficated) information with only corporate benefits in mind. This not only impacts cultural diversity abroad. Even in America alone, more people should be questioning the true extent of Western media’s influence.