Disney owns your soul.

Media Hegemonies. I am in shock! For this blog, I found a very helpful website: http://www.cjr.org/resources. You can select from a variety of different major media companies, and from there see what that company owns. I had never heard of many of the companies, but after browsing to see what they own I frequently said to myself “OH! They own THAT channel, I love that channel!” I chose the Walt Disney Company because I was shocked to see how many other companies they own. When I think Disney, the first things that come to mind are [1] the Disney Channel (which is a pleasure to watch when I am in a United States hotel...about once every three years), [2] Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, just to name a few, and [3] Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. I had just always associated the word “Disney” with children, apparently. Of course I knew the Walt Disney Company MUST own other companies as well, but not nearly as many as this:
Film
Walt Disney Pictures
Touchstone Pictures
Hollywood Pictures
Miramax Films
Pixar
Broadcast Television
ABC Network
Owned and Operated Television Stations
WLS - Chicago
WJRT - Flint
KFSN - Fresno
KTRK - Houston
KABC - Los Angeles
WABC - New York City
WPVI - Philadelphia
WTVD - Raleigh - Durham
KGO - San Francisco
WTVG - Toledo
Cable Television
ESPN (80%)
ESPN2 (80%)
ESPN Classic (80%)
ESPNU (80%)
ESPNEWS (80%)
ABC Family
Disney Channel
Toon Disney
SOAPnet
Lifetime Network (partial)
Lifetime Movie Network (partial)
Lifetime Real Women (partial)
A&E (partial)
A&E International (partial)
Jetix Europe (partial)
Jetix Latin America
The History Channel (partial)
Lifetime Real Women (partial)
Radio
ABC Radio
WDWD – Atlanta
WMVP – Chicago
WLS – Chicago
KESN – Dallas
KMKI – Dallas-Forth Worth
KRDY – San Antonio
WCOG – Greensboro, NC
WRDZ – Indianapolis
KABC – Los Angeles
KLOS – Los Angeles
KDIS – Los Angeles
KSPN – Los Angeles
KDIZ – Minneapolis - St. Paul
WKSH – Milwaukee, WI
WEVD – New York City
KDZR – Portland, OR
KWDZ – Salt Lake City
KIID – Sacramento
KMKY – Oakland
KQAM – Wichita
KKDZ – Seattle
WSDZ – St. Louis
WWMK – Cleveland
KMIK – Phoenix
KDDZ – Denver
WWMI – Tampa
KMIC – Houston
WMYM – Miami
WBWL – Jacksonville
WBYU – New Orleans
KDIS – Little Rock
WWJZ – Philadelphia
WWJZ – Philadelphia
WMKI – Boston
WDZK – Hartford
WDDZ – Providence
WDZY – Richmond
WGFY – Charlotte
WDYZ – Orlando
WMNE – West Palm Beach
WEAE – Pittsburgh
WDRD – Louisville
WDDY – Albany, NY
KPHN – Kansas City
WQUA – Mobile
WBML – Jacksonville
WFDF – Detroit
WFRO – Fremont, OH
WDMV – Damascus, MD
WHKT – Norfolk Radio Disney
ESPN Radio (syndicated programming)
Music
Walt Disney Records
Hollywood Records
Lyric Street Records
Publishing
Book Publishing Imprints
Hyperion
Miramax Books
ESPN Books
Theia
ABC Daytime Press
Hyperion eBooks
Hyperion East
Disney Publishing Worldwide
Cal Publishing Inc.
CrossGen
Hyperion Books for Children
Jump at the Sun
Volo
Michael di Caupa Books
Disney Global Children's Books
Disney Press
Disney Editions
Disney Libri
Global Retail
Global Continuity
Magazine
Automotive Industries
Biography (with GE and Hearst)
Discover
Disney Adventures
Disney Magazine
ECN News
ESPN Magazine (distributed by Hearst)
Family Fun
Institutional Investor
JCK
Kodin
Top Famille - French family magazine
US Weekly (50%)
Video Business
Quality
Wondertime Magazine
Parks and Resorts
Walt Disney Imagineering
Disneyland Resort
Walt Disney World Resort
Tokyo Disney Resort
Disneyland Resort Paris
Hong Kong Disneyland
Disney Vacation Club
Disney Cruise Line
Other
Disney Theatrical Productions
Disney Live Family Entertainment
Disney on Ice
The Disney Store
Club Penguins
ESPN Zone
Disney Toys
Disney Apparel, Accessories and Footwear
Disney Food, Health and Beauty
Disney Home Furnishings and Decor
Disney Stationery
Disney Consumer Economics
The Baby Einstein Company
Muppets Holding Company
Disney Interactive Studios
Walt Disney Internet Group


FOUR PAGES ON MICROSOFT WORD. FOUR FUCKING PAGES. Okay, sorry. The implication for cross media pwnership...I mean ownership in terms of Disney is that all of the companies Disney owns either have to “Go big or go home.” Disney does not support any “underground” companies – only companies that have expanded to such a great extent, only to be bought out by Disney.

Net Neutrality

The internet is quickly becoming a battleground between public and private interests. Think FACEBOOK. On Facebook, when you join a network you can see everyone’s profile, including their birthday, hometown, sexual orientation and pictures. Some set their profile on strict privacy settings, however, many do not. Therefore, within a network of say 10 000 people, I would likely be able to view at least 8000 profiles, find out who they are, where they grew up, what they are interested in, what people say to them, and what they wore last Christmas. One can literally determine their exact lifestyle on a day-to-day basis. I don’t even feel it is necessary to distinguish the features of this conflict, but will anyways. THOUSANDS OF STRANGERS KNOW EXACTLY WHO YOU ARE AND EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR LIFE. Enough said? Facebook is so unsafe, yet millions of people have an account. I do. You probably do. Our entire class does. If I were given a random name of a student who attends the University of Guelph, I am almost certain that I could tell you almost everything there is to know about that person within 5 minutes of research. That is actually terrifying when you think about it. But no one seems to care...

My sister was a student at the University of Guelph for 5 years, and her art reflected the idea of a lack of privacy on Facebook. She even had an art show at Zavitz dedicated to this theme. My sister, Andrea, would “lurk” students’ profiles, and find very provocative images of students at the school. This would include students making drunken fools out of themselves, being involved in sexual and inappropriate encounters, and so on. She wondered why people would post these pictures on the net for anyone and everyone within the network to see. So she painted them. Seeing as she had an art show, her goal was for these students to see their own portraits and realize that everyone can see them almost having sex or their post drunken states. Unfortunately the kinds of kids who post these pictures rarely go to art shows, so none of them could see how Andrea’s art portrayed them. Her ideas for her art exemplify how the internet is becoming a battleground between public and private interests. The picture above is one of her Facebook inspired pieces.

National Media Education Week

For the week of November 3rd-7th, educators across Canada gathered to create awareness about media literacy. I did not participate in any events for this week and as such, I cannot write about my experiences. If I did that, my blog would end HERE.
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But lucky for you, it doesn’t! I am going to pretend that I did participate in National Media Education Week, and while pretending I am going to say that during this week, I had the opportunity to go to elementary schools and talk to the children about media literacy. I think it is very important for children, especially, do be media literate. In elementary school, the only tip of advice I was given was “Don’t talk to strangers online!” That was it – no whys/why nots, what are possible consequences if one does this?, and so on. Granted I were actually given the opportunity to speak to elementary school students, here are some of the things I would talk about. All issues relate to the age group of elementary school students, and therefore talking in depth about these issues will help prevent other issues in the future.
· It is important for children to know that they should not be talking to strangers on the internet. They especially should not give out any personal information as to where they live, how old they are, what their interests are, and so on. They should not send pictures or videos of themselves, and they should NEVER meet them. One of my Youtube vlogger friends meets so many friends on the internet and in her defence she says “Yeah, but I’ve seen them on Youtube; They aren’t 50 and creepy.” Even if you have seen an internet friend on webcam does not mean they act that way in real life. One has to wonder why these people are trying to make friends on Youtube all the time, and not real friends in the real world. To emphasize this issue, I would tell the children real stories of abduction, rape, and even murder via the internet.
· Children need to be aware of the consequences of internet bullying. Bullying is made so easy on the internet, and I know people that are my age who STILL participate in such. Examples of internet bullying are as followed: [1] direct bullying over MSN, [2] hacking into someone’s e-mail account and sending mean messages to that person’s friends, [3] making or joining a Facebook group entitled “Sam is the biggest loser in life”, or something of that nature. These are only some of the common forms of internet bullying. Children need to be aware that internet bullying can (for the victim) lead to depression, anxiety, and worst case scenario – suicide.
· Children often do not realize that not everything that is said on the internet is true – just about anybody can write nonsense on the computer and call it a fact. This goes for images as well. Children need to learn about legitimate resources on the internet VS illegitimate ones. For example, Wikipedia is not completely legit. I love Wikipedia, personally, but one has to be careful when using it as a resource. As for images, the one aspect I would like to focus on is how females are portrayed in the media. Children see these images of females with a flat stomach, massive breasts, a cute butt, and an absolutely gorgeous face, with no pimples or blemishes. Girls especially (but boys as well) need to learn that there IS, in fact, such thing as Photoshop. These people are NOT this perfect in real life. Speaking from experience, many girls see these images and try to imitate them by changing their appearance in a drastic manner. This is also one of the leading causes of anorexia and bulimia amongst adolescents.

When children get to high school, these issues as well as many others need to be addressed, because in a nation where media companies are expanding, these children are our future.

Culture Jamming>Adbusters>HIPSTERS!

“The common thread [of Culture Jamming] is mainly an urge to make fun of the homogenous nature of popular culture” (Wikipedia). The main objective of Culture Jamming is to make the public aware of their current environment, and while doing so, to make them laugh at the farce that is pop culture. Culture Jamming also provokes interest in various aspects of our culture and presents us with certain contrast about a particular facet within the media. Some of my previous blogs even represent the ideas of a culture jammer; I don’t actually say OMGWTFLOLSRSLY?!11!1!?...But people do, they ACTUALLY do.

Adbusters Media Foundation consists of people who call themselves “a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age” (Adbusters). Adbusters is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1989. After almost completing my first semester of university, I have realized a couple things: [1] I am not as good at English as I thought I was. High school English was deceiving. [2] I do not have the patience to be an artist, though my results are usually decent (not that I was planning on being a “professional artist” anyways. What are the chances of that working out?). [3] Culture jamming is the ideal career for a cynical, witty, yet surprisingly elated girl, like myself.

My essay for this class was inspired by an Adbusters article. The article, entitled “Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization” quite clearly speaks of the current “Hipsterdom” in today’s society. The ideas presented in the essay were that of my own, however I used the article to underlay my arguments. [http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/79/hipster.html] I recommend you read it, if you haven’t already. Without reiterating my essay, hipsters combine clothing fashions from many different fashion eras, usually share artistic and aesthetic interests, and are somewhat pretentious and intimidating to those who do not classify this scene. The farce of Hipsterdom is only one of my favourite articles that I have seen in Adbusters Magazine.

OMGLOLTTYL.

We are at War.

We are at war. And why are we at war? Well, I don’t really know why. I’m assuming that even after the 7th anniversary of 9/11, one of the biggest economic crises in history, the fighting continues. And it is so, soooo stupid. All nations involved in this war spend every day of their lives in fear of another attack. What is even being accomplished here? And by that, I mean what is it exactly that we are fighting for? There is no prize, only the satisfaction of knowing which nation can ruin the most lives – which is just disgusting. The only aspect of the war that is truly astonishing is knowing that we are living through textbook material. High school students will actually be tested on our everyday experiences, years to come.

A couple of my personal friends from high school joined the Canadian forces after realizing that they were not bound for university or college. My one friend, Kevin, in particular, joined the army because he figured it was the only way to change his life around after years of drug abuse. He joined the forces as a peacekeeper, however participated in all necessary training to fight as a soldier. The UN established a peacekeeping mission in 2000 to “ensure observance of the security commitments of the agreement and to monitor a temporary security zone between the opposing armed forces” (http://www.forces.ca/). As such, Kevin was told almost two years ago that he would not be sent to the Middle East to fight in this war. But surprise, surprise – he is being sent to Afghanistan in months to come to fight in this war. I have a few other friends in the army as well, two of which are in the American Military. I wouldn’t even really call them friends, actually. They were friends in high school, however we parted ways as of recently. These guys, unlike Kevin, joined the Military to fight – they have so much hostility in their lives that they think legally killing people will enrich their punctured souls. It’s extremely sad, actually. Kevin, however, is different. He has good intentions and a loving soul. He merely joined the army so he could be free from peer pressure and self-infliction.

I think Kevin is the reason why I am so emotional towards the war; seeing as my family lives in Canada, I do not worry as much about their safety nearly as much as I would if they lived in the United States, or especially the Middle East. God bless Kevin, as well as all the other brave soldiers involved in this war. Though I strongly disagree with warfare, I nonetheless admire their bravery and courage. And if being a part of the war can change others’ lives for the better as it did Kevin’s, then all the power to them, because the war would remain ongoing regardless.

Re: The American Presidential Election

I won’t lie – I am not super qualified to speak rhetorically of American politics...or Canadian politics either, for that matter. As such, I apologize in advance if my opinions reflect those of a moron, who has absolutely no idea what is happening in the world around her. But hey, at least I knew who Sarah Palin was before the infamous SNL skit mocking the Sarah Palin VS Katie Couric interview.

Like the majority of Canadians, I was thrilled when Obama won the American Presidential Election for the Democratic Party. One thing in particular I would like to comment on regarding the election is that I have never seen today’s youth actively participate in supporting a presidential candidate to this extent prior to Obama. I’ve seen young adults and teenagers walk around town wearing Obama t-shirts; I’ve seen them buy Obama posters at the poster sale in the University Centre; I even heard about some kids dedicating their bong to the man, naming it “O-BONGA!” On Election Day, at least 30 Facebook friends had their status set to “VOTE OBAMA!” People of all ages support Obama, however I have chosen to focus on North America’s youth, particularly because I have never seen such a wide variety of teenage supporters in any American Election. This, perhaps, could be due to the fact that I am only 18, and as such am just starting to become more involved in these matters as well. Nevertheless, I’m sure any adult can see where I’m coming from. There are many possible reasons behind the youth’s recent involvement in the American Election:

a) The youth especially/most people detest George Bush. Seeing as McCain was, too, a Republican candidate, Obama would definitely not reflect Bush’s regime.

b) America is in desperate need of change for many different reasons – a revolutionary candidate could provide America with these changes.

c) Obama is the first black to be elected President of the United States. People wanted to witness what will be in the history textbooks, centuries to come.

d) The youth is strongly influenced by what is considered “cool” in the media. Obama is cool.

e) Obama did not hire Sarah Palin. Enough said.

Don’t get me wrong – I think that the youth’s shift in interest regarding political matters is remarkable. I just hope it is for the right reasons.

One Web Day

On September 22nd, 2008 people gathered around the world to create awareness about the internet. Well, apparently they did. I didn’t. And everyone I know didn’t. But hopefully some did, because creating awareness about the internet is an important subject these days, especially for our youth. I constantly hear on the news about children being abducted or harmed by someone they met on the internet. I have even heard of situations of internet bullying that have ultimately led to suicide. I even know people back home (still in high school, quite obviously) that create fake MSN or Facebook accounts just to spread gossip or torment someone they dislike. Not only is it extremely pathetic to see such kids waste their time on such a terrible cause, but it is also a despicable thing to do to another. Because of all the crime that occurs on the internet, I think there should be more days devoted to internet awareness, especially in elementary schools and high schools.
I sometimes wonder how different my life would be if the internet never existed. It would be a sort of Stone Age, almost. I can’t even begin to think of what life would be like without Facebook or Youtube, let alone the internet all together. How would we do information research? Oh, right. Books. Encyclopedias. Remember them? Despite the accuracy found in books, typing in a subject on Google is a hell of a lot easier, even if the resources aren’t 100% legit. If the internet were nonexistent I don’t think I’d have too many friends. Unlike most of my friends while growing up, I never once had an internet friend that wasn’t, at the very least, a friend of a friend. But you know how Facebook works. “Oh, hey, there’s that guy I see everywhere around residence, and I think he might be in one of my classes.” Add. Throughout high school I don’t think I would have met most of my friends at my school who were a year or two older than me if it weren’t for Myspace. The internet has replaced so many activities that I used to have to get up off my ass to do. I can talk to friends and family on the internet, and I can even see them if I wanted to. I can research absolutely anything, whether it’s for school or personal curiosity. I can buy things without going to a store, and even organize delivery of the purchased items. I am constantly learning about new things one can do on the internet, even to date. I just recently found out that people can do their groceries online. Srsly. Is that really necessary? Unless you are paraplegic or suffer from an illness that legitimately makes it difficult to do groceries, GET OFF YOUR ASS.
I wish it were easier to imagine a life without the internet, but unfortunately it is not because of the major influence it has on todays and future cultures. “A world without internet is like a world without sunlight.” Yes, my friend once said that (you probably think I have a lot of stupid friends by now). I’m not quite sure if she was joking or not, but there had to be some truth in it. It’s actually heart-breaking...