Muhammad Abu Bakar Saddique
Saba Pirzadeh
SS 100
22nd November 2016.
Disney and the death of natural intellect.
This piece, compiled by Henry Giroux and Grace Pollock highlights a major social problem that goes away unnoticed. Henry Giroux, an American and Canadian scholar and cultural critic is one of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy in the United States. He is also honored as one of the top fifty educational theorists of the modern period. Grace Milliman Pollock was a leading philanthropist from Pennsylvania, United States. This work reinforces the ideas and criticism from Henry’s book “The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence” originally published in 1999. Giroux and Pollock's peerless intellect exposes corporate media particularly Disney, through important and eye-widening information that the audience needs to attend to. The thorough research by the authors complimented by the excellent use of facts makes it an indispensable reference work. It provides an insight into the entertainment industry, particularly Disney, and the tactics they use to lure young minds into their agenda of consumerism and commodification. It gives a detailed analysis of the various tactics used by the corporation and the way they execute them. This piece provides its audience, in this case educators, cultural workers, and parents, a view of how corporate media controls and influences the thought of young budding minds, turning them into effective consumers and profit gaining machines. The authors have instilled a serious tone in their writing to emphasize the gravity of the problem discussed. The article embodies a strong structure, excellent exemplification and good rhetorical appeals. Nevertheless, some paragraphs show digression and certain important terms are left undefined leaving room for improvement.
A case study of corporate ethics and objectives, this article provides an extensive understanding of the use of media as a tool for corporate gains. This paper is synonymous with Henry Giroux’s book “The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence”. An excerpt from the book clearly explains its influence on this paper. The Book warns “Disney has become a major player in global culture, and the first casualties of its dominance in popular culture are, of course, those who are most defenseless – children,” (Giroux, 1999). The critical highlight of this piece is the use of credible facts and figures to support the argument. The use of supporting material constructs the seriousness of the topic under discussion. For example in the 2nd paragraph the author states some alarming facts from a report by a research group when he cites “It is estimated that the average American spends more than six hours a day watching video-based entertainment , and by 2013, it will match the number of hours spent sleeping”. Likewise, the authors have made candid, yet controversial claims but have not fallen short to produce sufficient evidence. For example in the 8th paragraph the authors state “Childhood ideals increasingly give way to a market-driven politics in which young people are prepared for a life of objectification that will simultaneously drain them of viable sense of moral and political agency”. This again is supported by material from the book “Generation” which states, “Kids of all ages now find themselves in what the Berkeley Media Studies Group and the center for digital democracy call a new marketing ecosystem”. Similarly, in the 2nd paragraph of the “Childhood Inc.” chapter, the authors have taken help from an event to support their claim of Disney using harmful marketing techniques to mesmerize minds as young as three months old. It cites the research of The University of Washington where they claim that “infants eight to 16 months old, who were exposed to one hour of viewing baby DVDs and videos per day, displayed slower language development”. Disney responded by claiming the research as “misleading, irresponsible and derogatory”. The point to focus is that the authors have satisfied the readers with bold statements and matching facts. Thus, while reading the article, the audience is free of suspicion for the material. Giroux and Pollock have given a good sequence to the article by starting with the influence of Disney and related Media corporations on kids and then explaining the rise of Disney as the Principal architect of the communication and entertainment industry. For example, in the 2nd paragraph, the writers have cited Susan Linn, a psychiatrist, who condemned corporate media as the “hostile takeover of childhood”. Since this point, the article goes into further details of various aspects, causes, effects and strategies and concludes on calling Disney as the epitome of global corporate media culture. For instance in the 2nd last paragraph of the Childhood Inc. chapter, the authors cite “Disney not only represents one of the best known symbols of capitalist consumerism…. In other words, Disney culture acts as a temporary salve to growing feelings of uncertainty and insecurity produced by economic dislocations and social instability on a national and global scale.
The excellent transition between the paragraphs enhances the understanding of the paper. In the 4th and 5th paragraph, the authors have described the transformation of Disney from a mere entertainment company to the “powerful example of new corporate media”. Similarly in the Disney’s Marketing Juggernaut chapter, the 3rd paragraph ends with multiple examples on how Disney acquires help from psychologists like Kelly Pena who “by using her anthropological skills to convince young boys and their parents to allow her to look into the kid’s closets, go shopping with them and pay $75 to be interviewed”. Similarly for better coherence, the 4th paragraph starts with condemning such practices. As the authors have written “Disney’s recent attempt to corner the young male market through the use of sophisticated research models, ethnographic tools and the expertise of academics indicates the degree to which the language of the market has disengaged itself from either moral considerations or the social good”. The reader gets a perfect idea as to where the writing is taking them. The authors have provided the audience with a panorama where they confidently know what to expect next. The authors have adopted a style which first attracts the audience to the ways and tactics of how corporate media find ways to influence the youth to become a stepping stone in the consumer-commodity cycle. Similarly in the latter stages of the article, the authors have emphasized on the seriousness the problem and how this industry is growing without facing necessary opposition. It is best explained in the article itself in the last paragraph of the conclusion which states “Disney’s commodification of childhood is neither innocent nor simply a function of entertainment. The values Disney produces as it attempts to commander children’s desires and hopes may offer us one of the most important clues about the changing nature of our society and the destructive force behind the unchecked economic power wielded by massive corporations”.
The article has quality rhetorical appeals which add to its good organization. The authors have used frequent rhetorical appeals and in different contexts. The use of logos, ethos and pathos has made this article a lot more coherent. The authors have used a credible source every time they want their audience to believe what they are stressing on. For instance, in the first paragraph the authors have briefly generalized the ways of corporate media and its immediate effects. To gain attention to this serious problem, they have cited in the 2nd paragraph a medical association’s research which stated “the American medical association reports that the combined hours spent in front of television or video screen is the single biggest chunk of time in the waking life of an American child”. Similarly in the 6th paragraph, to give an inside view into the economic and infrastructural growth of Disney, the authors have used a logical appeal when they state “In 1999, Disney was a $22 billion profit making machine. Ten years later, Disney is generating over &37.8 billion per year and quickly expanding the market for its products in countries such as China, where the latest Disney theme park – Hong Kong Disneyland – opened in 2005, and another park is slated for development in Shanghai”. Similarly in the 3rd paragraph of the chapter Disney’s Marketing Juggernaut, the authors have used an article from the New York Times to gain credibility for the claim that Disney constantly invests in research to find new ways to manipulate consumers of the general market to buy their content. It states “According to the New York Times, Disney is at the forefront of finding ways to capitalize on the $50 billion dollars spent worldwide by young boys between the ages of six and 14”. Similarly, in the last paragraph of this chapter, the authors have mentioned a doctor to gain support in order to criticize the use of psychologists, who concentrate on young minds to better comprehend their way of life in order to create advertising techniques that are more covered, appealing and successful. The authors have first mentioned a claim by Disney itself saying “you have to start with the kids themselves”, then have countered it with “Several psychologists, especially Allen D. Kanner, have publicly criticized such disingenuous practices”.
Despite having a strong structure and good rhetorical appeals, the article falls short by having deviation at some stages. For example, in the 11th paragraph of the chapter Childhood Inc., the authors have mentioned that the “Disney celebrity factor has long been masterful at churning out clean cut teen idols who symbolize these wholesomely bland American values”. The entire paragraph is about a TV sensation, Hanna Montana who embodies the celebrity factor mentioned above, linking Hanna Montana to her effects on viewers. The paragraph ends without satisfying the point under consideration but the immediate paragraph deviates and starts a completely new argument. It states “Concepts of self and society are undoubtedly shifting as we witness the growing interpenetration of the economic and the cultural. Spaces that were once constructed through forms of public culture as noted by Sharon Zukin, have now become privatizes, controlled and framed by corporate culture”. Furthermore, the authors have also left some terms and statements undefined which leaves room for doubt and a confused imagination. For example the writers have started this piece with phrases like the “empire of consumption” and a “culture of commodification” without giving a brief summary of what they are going to explain. Likewise in the first paragraph of the chapter Disney’s marketing juggernaut, words like “seductive symbolism” create confusion.
The article is a strong work of research and has ample information to completely elaborate its point. The authors have used a serious tone and are critical of corporate media, especially Disney in its practices to attract young minds towards their commodities and turn them into consumers with a particular mindset. They have supported their claims and statements with good examples and relevant material. Furthermore the rhetorical appeals have also been well placed along the article to keep the reader attracted. Despite having a strong structure, the article, at some points digresses from is course. The authors have also used some unspecified phrases which need explanation in an otherwise well-elaborated piece.
word count: 1883
Works Cited
Giroux, Henry. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.
Giroux, Henry A. The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999