Monday 2 May 2011

Globalisation- Exam practice

Some critics argue that the growing Disney brand is a good example of cultural imperialism at work. Do you agree?

Disney is a very popular American conglomerate that is internationally recgonised. Cultural Imperialism argues that "American values and ideologies are imposed apon the rest of the world through media texts. For example Disney films are the most popular are still are today with films like Cinderella, Beauty and The Beast and Dumbo. Interestingly, they were made in the 1930's and 40's so still have some historical values such as the fairytale ending of a passive princess who gets saved by a heroic hansom man- usually of high status and wealth. Even these values are still carried on by these texts as they are still widely available in shops today.

However, more recently the brand has reconsidered and changed some of their values and imposed them in their texts. For example, Tangled and Toy Story 3 challenge some of those traditonal fairytale endings and characters for more modern ones such as the dominant and revengful Barbie and the very camp Ken. Althogh some may argue that Disney are following modern trends rather than creating them. However, its their power as a conclogorate that have forwarded these modern American values onto the rest of the world.

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