Disney
in Times Square:
It's a Small World
After All
Kelly Cole, University
of Wisconsin
Since the passage of the
Telecommunications Act in 1996 there has been much anxiety over the growing
power of media conglomerates. At the forefront of this trend is the Walt
Disney Company, whose merger with ABC/Cap Cities the year before seemed
to usher in a new era of consolidation. Journalists and scholars, in works
like "Disney Discourse" and "Team Rodent," have grappled with the implications
of Disney's ever-widening shadow on the American cultural landscape. However,
the recent expansion of this entertainment giant beyond Hollywood and Orlando
into the realm of urban geography has been largely unscrutinzed. The extension
of synergistic media practices from entertainment to urban spaces such
as "DisneyQuest" represents a significant shift in the balance of power
between the public and private sectors of American society.
Nowhere is this more apparent
than in New York City, where Disney's Broadway and retail ventures stand
as a shining example of corporate/government alliance in action. In this
paper, I analyze coverage of the Disney-NYC project in the print media
from 1992 to 1998, and examine the discursive labor that went into depicting
Disney as a social benefactor while diminishing its corporateness. In
particular I trace two major tropes: first, the symbolic resonance of both
Times Square and Disney as metaphors (or metonyms) for America and its
greatness. And second, the rewriting of public space as private, and the
translation of public interest into corporate interest. My analysis of
the discourses surrounding Disney's occupation of Times Square makes visible
the process by which corporate power is naturalized and its material and
social consequences are mystified and obscured. |
