Disney: A Global American Culture

 

In our world today, media is no longer confined to the local area or region in which it was produced. Media is rapidly spread on a global scale allowing it to reach people who would have never had access to it without the implementation of mass communications. The Walt Disney Company is one of the largest producers of children’s media worldwide, with children in almost every nation familiar with some aspect of the Disney Company or its productions. This spread of media, however, does not occur without creating some sort of influence or impact on the audience who receives it. While it may not be so blatant, the audiences of Disney media, especially children, are receiving, absorbing, and adopting the underlying messages, themes, and ideas that are portrayed within these media. Known as mediated quasi-interaction, “symbolic forms are produced for an indefinite range of potential recipients” while remaining “monological in character, in the sense that the flow of communication is predominantly one-way” (Rantanen, 9). The messages and themes that are produced are often pro-capitalist, Americanized ones that promote a sort of ‘American Life’. This spread of American values through Disney media encourages, for the most part, homogenization amongst those who absorb it. There are some attempts by local communities throughout the world to create their own children’s media, but the power and control that Disney has in that market makes it extremely difficult for these local productions to gain much momentum.

           

Since its creation in 1923, the Disney Company has worked to expand both their productions, in terms of media and content, and their recipient audience. This need to expand stems from the desire to increase profits by marketing and selling their media globally. Known as Grobalisation, this idea refers to “the imperialistic goals, desires, and needs of big businesses or companies…to settle in diverse areas of the world so that their supremacy, impact, and profits can grow” (Matusitz, Palermo, 92). Through the expansion of their market to a global audience, the Disney Company has been able to increase profits exponentially, allowing them to also create a stronger presence in the realm of children’s media, eventually becoming the predominant producer of such media. As Michael Eisner, CEO of the Walt Disney Company stated, “To make money is our only objective” (Mickey Mouse Monopoly). The basic expansion of a company or corporation, however, does not necessarily encourage homogenization; it is the content that that company produces that either promotes or discourages homogenization. In terms of the Disney Company, “Grobalisation…does presuppose a monolithic implementation and enforcement of Western culture. It is hyper-invasive to local cultures and constitutes more than just a ‘global consciousness’” (Matusitz, Palermo, 92). The Disney Company does more than just produce films and TV shows; it produces messages and ideas that reflect American values and beliefs. In the attempt to assert American ideas, Disney “seeks to eliminate the local and impose the global” (Matusitz, Palermo, 92). The ‘global’ in this case refers to the ‘western-globe’, as imposing western culture while attempting to diminish/de-value local cultures around the world.

             

As Disney continued to expand globally, “modern Western ideas of childhood…became prevalent” throughout the world (Havens). The messages and ideas that are incorporated into Disney productions are received and absorbed by the children watching them, along with the parents who provide their children with the media that they consume. The children aren’t just passive observers of this media but rather they are active consumers who are influenced, in both their actions and beliefs, by the content that they absorb. “What we are seeing is the construction of a homogenized global children’s culture, in which cultural differences are being flattened out and erased” (Buckingham, 45). Disney has such a tight grip on the children’s media market that they can produce one movie and have it reach almost every child in developed or developing nations. This reach allows them to broadcast their ideas on a massive scale to an audience who, at such a young age, will be heavily influenced by what they see. It is the ability of “Disney to exercise a great influence on the minds and perceptions of children in other cultures by portraying and celebrating American mainstream social values” that creates this sense of a universal childhood (Lee, 41). ‘Universal’, however, may be the wrong word as this sense of childhood is purely American and not very incorporative of other cultures. Disney promotes the American childhood while diminishing other cultures’ sense of what it means to be a child in today’s world. 

           

Much of this acceptance of Disney media comes from the children who watch and absorb Disney productions. The children know of Disney and know that it is a very popular children’s media producer. Subsequently, they want to watch a Disney product because it is what most of the other children around them are watching. Also, “many older children apply media entertainment in English as a taste marker of quality” (Drotner, 142). This stems from the 80 plus years that Disney has been producing media, creating a sort of legacy that has carried on from generation to generation. However, children are not the only supporters of Disney media. Adults are typically the ones who provide children with the content that they then consume, as children do not usually have the resources to go out and obtain it themselves. Many adults around the world believe that Disney promotes proper moral values and ideas for their children to consume, and in turn want their children to watch such media because they feel that they can trust Disney. There is also, however, a sense of reminiscent childhood that is sparked in adults when they see their children watching Disney productions. For example, “many Korean parents recall their childhood when they see their children watching a Disney film just as they did as children” (Lee, 43). Because Disney has been around since the 1920’s, parents who grew up watching Disney programs are more inclined to provide their own children with content similar to that of when they were young. Parents’ tendency to trust Disney as a producer of proper children’s media further engages Disney in cultures around the world, intertwining Disney with a recollection of childhood memories.

           

Disney’s success, however, has not gone completely unchallenged. Just because Disney is the largest children’s media producer in the world does not mean that everyone who watches and consumes the productions will be influenced by it. As Morley states, “it has come to be recognized that audiences are active in various ways, as they select from and reinterpret, for their own purposes, the media materials that they consume” (Morley, 39). The audiences are not passive, and they will select at their own discretion which media they will accept and which media they will not. While Disney does have enormous production power and a massive audience, Disney cannot force people to watch and be influenced by their media. Lending to the idea of Audience Reception theorized by Stuart Hall, the audience has the power to interpret what they receive in whatever manner they feel is appropriate, usually based on pre-existing cultural, ethnic, and/or national beliefs and ideas. For example, the opening of Euro Disney, the first Disney theme park to open in Paris, was a disaster. “50,000 people visited the park instead of the projected 500,000…food and souvenir sales were low…Hotel occupancy rates were 37%...within the first four months, over 1000 employees left” (Matusitz, 226). Compared to their projections, the opening was a complete bust. Much of this failure stemmed from critics who “referred to Euro Disney as a symbol of cultural imperialism that was ‘plastic’, the new beachhead of American imperialism” (Matusitz, 226). This rejection of Euro Disney shows that the audience does have some power in spread of Disney. Critics of Euro Disney did not see the park as a blend between French and American culture, but rather as a purely American landmark with no connection to the country in which it resides. In 1993, the then current chairman, Robert Fitzpatrick resigned as Euro Disney nearly went bankrupt.

           

These setbacks, however, did not stop Disney from continuing to try and remedy the situation. They hired a new chairman, Philippe Bourguignon, a Frenchman who took up the massive task of reorganizing and fixing the mess that was Euro Disney. First and foremost, the name was changed to Disneyland Paris to give the people of France a closer connection to the park. Among several other alterations, there were four changes that allowed Disneyland Paris to eventually become a success; “(1) cutting the price; (2) turning shows and settings into French style; (3) change of food menus and eating habits; and (4) change of employee customs and labor policies” (Matusitz, 228). All of these changes created a more ‘French-friendly’ environment that the attendees could better relate to. Known as glocalization, this “is an example of what changes should be made after a company unsuccessfully tries to impose its entire culture in other countries” (Matusitz, 227). Disney found that they could not simply impose their own culture in France without any alterations and still receive the same success that they had grown accustomed to elsewhere.

           

However, even though Disney did alter some of their practices and customs to better fit into French culture, they still retained many of their core, dominant values and ideologies. The creation of Disneyland Paris still promoted the underlying American themes that are more blatantly present in the media that Disney produces. This promotion of both Disney and American values encourages the homogenization of cultures around the world as they are exposed to and absorb the media produced and distributed by Disney. While some audiences may reject Disney media, it is so prevalent in our world today that it is nearly impossible to avoid. Because children are Disney’s target audience, they are the ones who are most vulnerable to being influenced by the messages portrayed. They may not fully understand or grasp everything that is said, but they are still raised around the films, shows, books, magazines and amusement parks that permeate our society; Disney has such a monumental global presence, it is almost impossible to avoid.