Janet Wasko

Challenging Disney Myths

The article draws on recent studies of the Walt Disney Company that have used a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to challenge some of the myths that surround the company, its products, and its creator, Walt Disney. The discussion considers five assumptions that are typically made about Disney: (1) Walt Disney was a creative genius who was responsible for the companys success; (2) the Disney company is somehow special and unique, not like other corporations; (3) Disney is only for kids; (4) Disneys products are harmless, safe, and unbiased; and (5) everyone adores Disney. The arguments that challenge these myths are drawn from a wide range of studies from different disciplines but rely heavily on the integration of political economy, critical cultural analysis, and reception research.

Children’s Virtual Worlds: The Latest Commercialization of Children’s Culture

The Internet has been praised for offering an unlimited means of accessing and sharing information, as well as new forms of entertainment and diversion. While a good deal of attention has been directed at adult role-playing games (such as World of Warcraft), social networks (such as MySpace and Facebook), and virtual communities (such as Second Life), less is known about websites aimed at children.

La Economía Política del cine

This paper is based on the assumption that film is a form of mediated communication, thus appropriate for many of the approaches used in studying other forms of media. The article begins with a brief discussion of the Political Economy of Communication, their tehoretical principle and their main differences with media economics, and then focusses more specifically on the Political Economy of film, pointing to the significance of the approach, as well as identifying questions raised and methods used in this type of analysis, less often explained by political economists. Thus it is called for a cross media analysis, film industry included, and to foster with another critical approaches.

Corporations and Cultural Industries: Time Warner, Bertelsmann and News Corporation

First, the media struggle for proprietorship of the universality embodied in the 9/11 narrative is reflected in constant modulations, inversions, appropriations and reappropriations, evaluations and re-evaluations characterising the universal/particular dynamic that drives the meaning-making process. (p. 239) Whilst it is not new to suggest that the global is translated through local processes, the authors adopt a complex theoretical framework based on a multidisciplinary approach and extensive research to illustrate how these processes are articulated in relation to Islam-related news. The value of transnational, comparative analysis is to demonstrate how the universal is reconciled with the particular in a context where news is no longer a solely local product but a product of global flows. The analysis is acutely reflexive, avoiding assumptions at every turn, therefore providing a sophisticated examination for those who wish to push this field of study beyond current debates.

What is Television? An Introduction

This essay introduces the special issue based on What is Television? A Conference Exploring the Past, Present and Future of Television.

Labor in the Information Age

Labor in the Information Age John Trumpbour a; Alex Bryson b; Rafael Gomez c; Paul Willman c; Kim Scipes d; Greg Gigg e; Janet Wasko f; Rose Tang g;Tom Mertes h a Harvard University, b National Institute for Economic and Social Research and Centres for Economic Performance (CEP), London, UK c Department of Management, London School of Economics, London, UK d Purdue University North Central, e Teamster member IBT Local 25, Boston f University of Oregon, g Ferris Fellow of Journalism/Visiting Professor, Princeton University, h University of California, Los Angeles

Review: Paula Chakravartty and Yuezhi Zhao (eds), Global Communications: Toward a Transcultural Political Economy. Lanham, Boulder, New York and Plymouth, UK: Rowan & Littlefield, 2008. £53.00. 359 pp

Global communications have been a major focus of critical political economists studying media and communication for quite awhile. Indeed, one might argue that it is impossible to adequately study political economy without a global dimension, and certainly this has been one of the prevailing themes of work done in media/communication studies from this perspective since at least the 1960s. So, why add ‘transcultural’ to ‘global communications’ in the title of this collection? Don’t studies of globalization inherently involve more than one culture, and thus automatically become ‘transcultural’? Perhaps. But often, discussions of international communications begin and end with the powerful institutions that dominate global media and communications: in other words, the North American or European information and culture industries and the state formations that (often) support them. For many years now, we have heard ongoing demands for a more complete analysis of global communications to account for the spaces outside the mainstream, beyond the domineering power structures, incorporating the cultural sphere, as well as the political/economic. More specifically, what about the local? What about resistance? And what about cultural practices and hybridity? For editors Chakravartty and Zhao, a more sophisticated method of analysing global communication needs to embrace all of these elements. In their introduction to this collection, they explain that ‘transcultural political economy’ is an approach that attempts,