The Mickey Mouse (Culture) Industry

   18 October 2024  Leave a Comment on The Mickey Mouse (Culture) Industry  Posted in 1. ‘Two Step Flow theory’ Or ‘Culture Industry’, Blog

Culture Industry, a concept introduced by Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno in the “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception.”

(Source: Shalon van Tine)

In their view, the “Culture Industry” concept means that the entertainment culture, such as film and radio, no longer needs to be known as art, but instead, it becomes a business or an industry of entertainment production for the sake of the directors’ revenue or can be known as capitalist (Horkheimer and Adorno, 2002). In capitalist societies, cultural products are manufactured like goods in a factory: mass-produced, low-cost entertainment designed to fuel consumerism and maximise profits (Shalon van Tine, 2020).

CONTEMPORARY CULTURE INDUSTRY – THE MICKEY MOUSE INDUSTRY

(Source: https://inspectorgadget.fandom.com/wiki/The_Walt_Disney_Company)

Disney, also known as The Walt Disney Company, is a notable multinational mass media and entertainment company based in the United States. The company from an animation company with the deep-rooted iconic Mickey Mouse as their brand icon to become a diverse colossal company that is involved in various industries, from animation and film production to amusement parks and countless sectors, providing a great contemporary example linked to the “Culture Industry” concept.

COUNTLESS AND ONGOING ACQUISITIONS

Disney was founded in 1923 and started its acquisition since 1957. Up to now, the company has 33 acquisitions, and it is expected that Disney will continue to expand its industry by having more acquisitions in the future. For instance, Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox was motivated by Disney’s plan to develop its own streaming service, Disney+, highlighted by Disney’s CEO Bob Iger (Westberg, 2023).

(Source: https://quartr.com/insights/company-research/disneys-most-notable-acquisitions-since-inception)

Besides 21st Century Fox, leading entertainment production companies such as Marvel (TV and film) and PIXAR (animation) are also part of Disney’s acquisitions, demonstrating that Disney ambitiously expanded its involvement in the media industry to maximise its revenue. Make Disney worthy of the name of “The Entertainment Powehouse.”

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

Nowadays, the culture industry pushes art, packaged like political slogans, onto a reluctant public (Horkheimer and Adorno, 2002). Disney’s political correctness in their media products is always problematic for the public, such as LGBTQ elements in Lightyear and Strange World, the Black actress as Little Mermaid (Leparmentier, 2023) and the lack of dwarf actors for dwarf characters in Snow White (Di Placido, 2023) received a lot of backlashes from the public.

Although opinions on whether these issues are correct vary from person to person, it can be seen that Disney’s trying to be inclusive causes their “art” presentation to be far from its original meaning (aiming to entertain) and just to reach more diverse consumers. The former CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, also said that he wants to “return to our roots” and hopes that Disney will focus on “entertainment”, not political “message” (Di Placido, 2023).

In conclusion, the diversification of Disney’s markets provokes consumerism eagerly for their entertainment production, making Disney a substantial contemporary “Culture Industry”.

References:

  1. (Image) https://www.shalonvantine.com/secondasfarce/2020/2/21/adorno-and-the-culture-industry
  2. Horkheimer, M. and Adorno, T.W. (2006) “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” in Media and cultural studies: keyworks. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.
  3. Shalon van Tine. (2020) ‘Adorno and the Culture Industry’, Shalon van Tine, 22 February. Available at: https://www.shalonvantine.com/secondasfarce/2020/2/21/adorno-and-the-culture-industry (Accessed: 17 October 2024).
  4. (Image) https://inspectorgadget.fandom.com/wiki/The_Walt_Disney_Company
  5. ‘The Walt Disney Company’ (no date) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walt_Disney_Company (Accessed: 17 October 2024).
  6. Leparmentier, A. (2023) ‘Disney boss calls on creators to focus on ‘entertainment,’ not political ‘message”, Le Monde, 2 December. Available at: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2023/12/02/disney-boss-calls-on-creators-to-focus-on-entertainment-not-political-message_6306848_19.html (Accessed: 17 October 2024).
  7. Di Placido, D. (2023) The Many Controversies Of Disney’s ‘Snow White’ Remake, Explained. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2023/08/22/the-many-controversies-of-disneys-snow-white-remake-explained/ (Accessed: 17 October 2024).

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