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The Walt Disney Company: The Entertainment King
Role of media in shaping public opinion influence
Role of media in shaping public opinion influence
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Critical political Economy is a theory based on an interrogative approach to large-scale economic relationships based within a society. The notion that media is a profit-driven industry is widely accepted, as the communication industries are fully integrated into capitalist production. The political economy of media is based on the premise that media are powerful and able to effectively influence public opinion and shape public discourse (Wittel, 2012). Concentration of media outlets has resulted in the majority of media production outlets and distributors being owned by international media conglomerates such as the famous Walt Disney Company.
Critical Political Economy is theoretically based upon Marx’s concept of base and superstructure,
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Chomsky and Herman explain the systematic biases of North American media as a consequence of the pressure to create a stable and profitable business (2002), exemplified in the study of the Walt Disney Company. The Walt Disney Company's prominence and influence on consumer culture has provoked a broad critical debate on the subject of media convergence. Disney has always been a profit-motivated company, originally operating as a small, independent production company during the 1930s and 40s, but in the 1950’s moved to theme parks and television, before further expanding into merchandise in the 1980’s (Wasko, 2001 pp. 237--257). The Walt Disney Company has since evolved into a transnational media and entertainment conglomerate, with revenues over $25.4 billion in 2000. The Disney Company includes a wide range of entertainment labels, including films under the Walt Disney label, as well as Touchstone, Hollywood, Miramax and Merchant-Ivory. In 1998, Disney received nearly 22% of the market share in the North American market (Wasko, 2001, pp. 237--257). It is clear that the Disney Corporation is a dominant player in the entertainment and media business, an increasingly corporatized and centralised industry with an expanding focus on children, and is dominated by other transnational media conglomerate such as Viacom, Fox, and Time Warner. These corporations not only have enormous economic power, but their also exhibit great political influence. They have funnelled extraordinary sums of money to political parties and officials, spending over $3,570,000 in on lobbying in 2010. This political influence is not superfluous – it allows the company to influence policy changes to prevent the dissolution and degradation of their media
problems. In a study done on the role of the Walt Disney Company, Vincent Faherty explains
Over the centuries, the media has played a significant role in the shaping of societies across the globe. This is especially true of developed nations where media access is readily available to the average citizen. The media has contributed to the creation of ideologies and ideals within a society. The media has such an effect on social life, that a simple as a news story has the power to shake a nation. Because of this, governments around the world have made it their duty to be active in the regulation and control of media access in their countries. The media however, has quickly become dominated by major mega companies who own numerous television, radio and movie companies both nationally and internationally. The aim of these companies is to generate revenue and in order to do this they create and air shows that cater to popular demand. In doing so, they sometimes compromise on the quality of their content. This is where public broadcasters come into perspective.
The Walt Disney Company is a highly diversified media and entertainment company that has been growing by leaps and bounds since its inception in the late 1920’s. In the past few decades, The Walt Disney Company has expanded into numerous markets and diversified its business greatly. The company states that their corporate strategy is targeted at creating high-quality family content, exploiting technological innovations to make entertainment experiences more memorable, and expanding internationally. Upon studying the happenings of the company throughout the years, it is easy to see that the company is executing this strategy well through numerous strategic moves in the industry.
With an understanding of the theoretical links between economic structures, relations of production, and political systems that protect economic structures in society this case study examines media as a contributor to democracy in Australia as well as a business with economic objectives. This section will provide a short explanation of Fairfax media history and position in 2012 prior to explaining Gina Rinehart’s role in the company. The print sector in Australia has historically exhibited relatively high levels of concentration, dominated by News Corp Australia, Fairfax and APN. The Australian print news media have experienced a long-term trend of a decrease in titles and owners. According to Geoffrey Craig, ‘in 1923 there were as many as
The issue of the relationship between the mass media and the popular culture has always been a controversial issue in social sciences. The political economists insist on the role of the media industry in the creation of this phenomenon of the twentieth century. Though, advocates such as John Fiske, argue that popular culture is actually the creation of the populous itself, and is independent of the capitalist production process of the communication sector. Basing his argument on the immense interpretive power of the people, Fiske believes that the audience is able to break all the indented meanings within a media message. He also believes- by giving new meanings to that specific message they can oppose the power block that is trying to impose its ideology to the public. Consequently, this anarchistic activity of the audience creates the popular culture as a defence mechanism. Even when we accept Fiske’s ideas, we can not disregard the manipulative power of the media and its effects on cultural and social life.
The Disney corporation is easily the greatest empire of entertainment in the world thanks to the creator Walt Disney and his brother. Disney’s influence has been great within culture and society and I learned how much of an influence Disney has had through our course this semester. This influence is reflected and broadcasted through the many works and readings that we examined in class. The articles gave me new knowledge about Disney that I was previously unaware of.
(1) Michel G. Rukstad, David Collis; The Walt Disney Company: The Entertainment King; Harvard Business School; 9-701-035; Rev. January 5, 2009
This case provides a brief history of management conflict and change at Walt Disney Company. Former CEO Michael Eisner was considered to be controversial because of his abrasive style and tendencies toward micromanagement. It was this style that strained several important relationships to the Disney Company. Though his reign as CEO during the 80’s and 90’s helped advance Disney Company, it was his conflicting management style that led to his demise and the beginning of Robert Iger’s epoch at Disney. Since Iger has taken the helm as CEO Disney was ranked 67th in the Fortune 500 list for largest companies, it has become the largest media conglomerate in the world, and relationships and disputes stemming from Eisner have been reconciled.
One of the key factors of the successful diversification is the very strong branding of the name Disney. That the name was famous after the success in the early years made it among other things possible to go into the theme park industry. Evaluated isolated, the theme parks was a success. But when also accounting for the synergies created, the decision to go into this industry was a huge success. It has created a spiral of synergies, where the characters in the movies get more popular due to the parks, as well as the fact that when people are visiting the parks they get stimulated to buy the merchandise. This is just one example of the synergies that exist in Disney. When Michael Eisner took over control in Disney, he kept focusing on same corporate values as earlier, which are quality, creativity, entrepreneurialism and teamwork. These values have been preserved despite of the size of Disney, and are an important factor in sustaining and building the Disney brand.
The Walt Disney Company is the largest entertainment company in the world in terms of revenue. It was founded on October 16, 1923 by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy O. Disney. They started the company, The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, where they became the leader in the American animation industry and later working in live action film production, television and their world famous theme parks. Through different acquisitions, they have diversified and now do business in theater, radio, publishing, online media, music and own several television channels (Disney History Institute).
This is a publicly traded company in the US that has been ding quite well in the recent years. The company’s 10k filing for the year 2014. From this statement, the risks facing the company will be identified classified and suggestions made on how best to mitigate them in the subsequent areas. There are various areas that the risks can arise based on the company’s 10k filling (Mertz, 1999).
Ott, B. L, & Mack, R. L. (2010). Critical media studies: An introduction. Malden, MA: Wiley-
The Walt Disney Company, or more commonly known as Disney, is an American corporation headquartered in the Walt Disney Studios, Burbank, California. Disney (DIS) is the largest operator of theme parks and resorts and largest media conglomerate, reported total revenue of $11.58 billion, a 4% raise from the previous year in its third-quarter results. Most of its revenue is generated from the media network segment and the park and resort segment. Disney's strategies mainly focus on generating the best creative content possible along with innovation and utilizing the latest technology. (Seekingalpha.com, 2014)
The Mass Media is a unique feature of modern society; its development has accompanied an increase in the magnitude and complexity of societal actions and engagements, rapid social change, technological innovation, rising personal income and standard of living and the decline of some traditional forms of control and authority.
The primary goal of The Walt Disney Company is to become one of the world’s leading producers and providers of not only entertainment, but also information (The Walt Disney Company, 2014). The company aims to achieve this by utilizing its immense brand portfolio so as to differentiate services, content, and consumer products. While this is the overall goal, there exist other innate milestones that essentially touch on socially responsible business in enhancing sustainability. They include, but are not limited to; zero net greenhouse gas emissions, whereby the company aims to have reduced net greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2020; zero waste, whereby Walt Disney hopes to achieve a 60% reduction in waste from