8. Watch the first part of Mouse Trapped 2010 and Mickey Mouse Monopoly and explain using specific elements from the films how they are good ex...

The two videos Mouse Trapped 2010 and Mickey Mouse Monopoly are two good examples of the different approaches of political economy and cultural studies founded by Carl Marx. Political economy is defined as the study of the basics of economics and its power in shaping our world. It is also related to the study of the distribution of wealth and how the economic system (capital) influences others. Cultural studies is defined as the study of the basics of culture and how it changes our world; it focuses on how certain messages or forms of media change and relate to ideology. It also seeks to understand the ways in which meaning is created and mass-produced through media institutions within specific cultures.

Mouse Trapped 2010 is a good example of political economy. This is a video about Disney workers and their long term struggles with their unfair wages. It gives others a second chance to look beyond the "magic". With the amount of money Disney makes, it is really unfair and hard to believe how little the cast members get paid by this powerful institution. In this case, from what the term political economy stands for, the distribution of wages is terrible. One man has worked there for three years already and isn't even around $8. But despite these unfair budgets, the company "insists that it's offering fair and 'competitive' wages". The company researched wages in the area and claimed theirs are comparable, but really what the company is doing "is doing research on themselves" because most institutions in Central Florida establish their wages in comparison to Disney's. As Grossberg states in his essay: "the fact that people do use the limited resources they are given to find better ways of living, to find ways of increasing the control they have over aspects of their lives, is significant, not only in itself, but also in terms of understanding the structures of power and inequality in the contemporary world and the possibilities for challenging them" (Grossberg 5).



Mickey Mouse Monopoly is a good example of cultural studies. This is a video that discusses the cultural mechanisms around us - one big one is Disney. Disney is a huge institution of media that socializes us into certain belief systems and fantasies. It is an important part of American culture and children's identity. Disney molds our sense of imagination and our ways of thinking. Giant corporations like Disney dominate the mass media, distort competition, and endanger democracy because similar images, and messages are being exposed in other forms of media not obviously labeled or owned by Disney. This corporate power merging with entertainment has a tremendous influence on popular culture. Because Disney is a trans-national media conglomerate, it is "policing" all publications relating to and including representations of Disney. Overall it is monopolizing its image to make sure the fantasy never discontinues.

As Grossberg says, "Cultural studies refuses to assume that people are cultural dupes, that they are entirely and passively manipulated, either by the media or by capitalism. But it does not deny that they are sometimes duped, that they are sometimes manipulated, that they are lied to (and believe the lies, sometimes knowing that they are lies)" (5). "The fact that certain institutions (and individuals) would like to comrol how people interpret texts or what they do with them does not mean that such 'intentions' determine what people do and think, that is, the effects of practices (6). But for the most part, in the case of Disney, big corporations like such control lots of popular culture and therefore lots of people's views.