3 Examples of Political Economy

1. Hollywood Empire 2. Disney Empire

3. Mary-Kate & Ashley’s Empire

“Thick Description” Analyses

• Looks at the industry of Hollywood as an economic institution

• Looks at films as commodities produced and distributed within a capitalist system and structure

• Rather than celebrate the success of Hollywood, a p-e analysis is interested in how US films come to dominate the global market.How can we understand the mechanisms in place that promote and sustain such hegemony (power)

• What are the political and cultural implications of such hegemony for other countries in terms of their own indigenous production, and in the Hollywood ideology for promoting US ‘values’?

• P-E analyses focus on labor, class and wealth issues related to Hollywood, and in alternatives to Hollywood. – e.g. indie films.

• Production (acquisition/development, properties/copyright, payers such as agencies, lawyers, management companies, script market, financing, pre-production, locations, film commissions, labor and unions, post-production, services, agencies)

• Distribution (the majors, the process, gross receipts, distribution to other entities)

• Exhibition/retail cineplexes and the malling of film; DVD extensions; television rights, etc.

• Industry expansion (media convergence – think BCE deal!)

• Promotion and protection of the industry. Tax breaks, subsidies, runaway productions, copyright and IP legislation

Disney's Entertainment World

• Film, home video, TV, cable TV, recorded music

• Re-release of Disney classics on video• Box office hits on video under the Touchstone

label• Diversification into adult entertainment:

Miramax = independent distribution company

• Merchant-Ivory = independent production company

• Prime-time network fare = Golden Girls, Ellen, Home Improvement

• Syndicated products = Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, Siskel and Ebert, Alladin, Disney Afternoon

• Disney Channel = the 2nd largest pay TV network

• Hollywood Records = hiphop groups such as Organized Confusion

• Stage = Beauty and the Beast• Theme Parks and resorts = 6 major theme parks, plus tourist

attractions• Disneyland in Anaheim, Walt Disney World in Orlando,

Magic Kingdom, Epcot• Center, Disney-MGM Studios, eight hotels, shopping villages,

conference• center..., Tokyo Disneyland, Euro-Disneyland, many other

investments in real estate and hotel management

Other consumer products include...

• more than 3,000 companies, licensing over 14,000 products

• comic books, children's books, Disney Books By Mail, Disney Audio Entertainment

• records, audio products, music publishing• clothing and retail stores• strategic alliances - with the likes of McDonald's,

giving the fast food chain the• exclusive rights to promote Disney products in their

restaurants

Disney Studies

• in the realm of popular studies, cultural studies

• rhetorical studies, feminist critiques, race and gender representations in Disney

• films and characters

Theme parks

• Architects, historians, and geographers are looking at Disney in terms of his theme parks...and his community in Florida, Celebration...

• a new type of public space? Or a highly controlled and mediated space that’s merely corporate....what sort of ideology do they reflect?

• Disneyworld/Land aims to reflect the American idealism, a celebration of mainstream American values and cultures. An emphasis on safety, quality, cleanliness and efficiency.

• Disneyworld in Orlando received special rights from the State of Florida to set up Reedy Creek Improvement District, which had govt. autonomy - it functioned as a company town - had power to maintain fire protection, manage building codes, hire their own inspectors, levy taxed, etc etc.

• See Carl Hiassen's Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World .

Mouse Labor

• Walt Disney University in California, Disney University in Florida - trains Disney workers into a work culture that is highly controlled, creating homogeneous cast members. Always wear a happy face: "We smile that extra mile”

• Celebration - the community in Orlando, Florida - an example of new urbanism or control manifest? For a look at Celebration, see Andrew Ross' The Celebration Chronicles: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property Values in Disneys' New Town (1999).

Walt’s History

• There are many glowing biographies of his ascent from his Midwestern origins to being creator of Mickey. The Disney Archives offers a sanitized version of his life...in reality, he was an anti-union, misogynist employer...who did 25 years of undercover work for the FBI...and played a key role in the creation of the (anti- Communist) blacklist in Hollywood in the 1940s...

• A very good bio is Steven Watts` The Magic Kingdom: Disney and the American Way of Life (Houghton Mifflin, 1997).

The Wonderfully Imperialistic, Racist, and Sexist World of Disney?

• According to Henry Giroux, in The Mouse that Roared: What Disney Teaches, we need to look at Disney's role in

• 1) shaping public memory, national identity, gender roles, and childhood values;

• 2) suggesting what qualifies as American; • 3) determining the role of consumerism in

North American life.