The Walt Disney Company is the second largest media and entertainment corporation in the world. The company’s revenue was $34.3 billion in 2006.
Founded on October 16, 1923 by brothers, Walt and Roy Disney as a small animation studio, it has become one of the biggest Hollywood studios, and owner of eleven theme parks and several television networks, including the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), but this is just a fraction of all of what Disney owns.
My research consisted of looking at Disney’s ownership that would fall under the category of ‘other.’ So let’s see what we got…
Disney Cruise Line, Baby Einstein, which is a line of multimedia products and toys that specializes in interactive activities for children, ESPN Zone, which is a small chain of very large sports-theme restaurants that include arcades, TV studios, and radio studios, Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, Broadway shows, and of course, Disney owns The Disney Store.
My group members further researched Disney’s ownership: newspapers, magazines, TV and cable stations, such as ESPN, Motion Pictures, Music labels, the Mighty Ducks hockey team, the California Angels baseball team, theme parks around the world, ABC TV stations, Network News, and ABC Radio.
Needless to say, I learned Disney owns A LOT. Naively enough I had no idea they owned ABC, which is huge. Knowing that Disney has an influence on my news and information outlets does make start to wonder. Each one of their stations, and each television show, has Disney in its best interest, which means I’m basing my information and knowledge off a biased point of view. Quite a scary thought I think, especially after learning about PR’s influence on the news. How are we ever to find information without a bias?
What Disney has done, is made itself self-sustainable. Say Disney puts out a film, they have the means to put it “on pay cable television and commercial network television, it can produce soundtracks based on the film, it can create spin- off television series, it can produce related amusement park rides, CD-ROMS, books, comics, and merchandise to be sold in Disney retail stores” (McChesney Robert 47).
After today’s lesson, I think awareness of media ownership is important for any individual looking for truth and accuracy. Disney has an overwhelming power and influence over the public, which society should know, realize, and question when needed. We know big corporations, like Disney, are protecting their own economic interests, after all it is ALL about money, but who’s protecting ours?
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