Mickey Mouse Takes Over the World

After doing some research and scrolling through seemingly never-ending lists, I'm just going to assume that Disney actually owns Earth. Below is a list of their assets:

Film and Theater

Disneynature

Disney Theatrical Productions

Touchstone Pictures

Marvel Entertainment

LucasFilm

Walt Disney Pictures

DisneyToon Studios

Walt Disney Animation Studios

Pixar Animation Studios

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International (Distribution)

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

Music

Disney Music Group

Hollywood Records

Walt Disney Records

Television

ABC-Owned Television Stations Group

WLS (Chicago, IL)

KFSN (Fresno, CA)

KTRK (Houston, TX)

KABC (Los Angeles, CA)

WABC (New York, NY)

WPVI (Philadelphia, PA)

WTVD (Raleigh-Durham, NC)

KGO (San Francisco, CA)

Disney ABC Television Group

ABC Television Network (ABC Daytime, ABC Entertainment, and ABC News)

ABC Family

ABC Studios

A&E Television Networks (50%)

The Biography Channel (50%)

Disney ABC Domestic Television

Disney ABC International Television

Disney-ABC-ESPN Television

Disney Channel Worldwide (Disney XD, Playhouse Disney, Jetix, and ABC Kids)

History (formerly The History Channel) (50%)

H2 (50%)

Hungama

Lifetime Entertainment Services (50%)

SOAPnet

Disney Junior (Flanders and the Netherlands)

ESPN, Inc. (80%)

ESPN (and ESPN.com and ESPN360.com)

ESPN2

ESPN 3D

ESPN Classic

ESPN Deportes

ESPNEWS

ESPNU

ESPN Enterprises

ESPN Interactive

ESPN International

ESPN Mobile Properties

ESPN on Demand

ESPN PPV

ESPN Regional Television

Longhorn Network

Radio

WDDY AM (Albany, NY)

WDWD AM (Atlanta, GA)

WMKI AM (Boston, MA)

WGFY AM (Charlotte, NC)

WRDZ AM (Chicago, IL)

WWMK AM (Cleveland, OH)

KMKI AM (Dallas-Fort Worth, TX)

KDDZ AM (Denver, CO)

WFDF AM (Detroit, MI)

KMIC AM (Houston, TX)

WRDZ FM (Indianapolis, IN)

KPHN AM (Kansas City, MO)

KDIS FM (Little Rock, AR)

KDIS AM (Los Angeles, CA)

WMYM AM (Miami, FL)

WKSH AM (Milwaukee, WI)

KDIZ AM (Minneapolis, MN)

WQEW AM (New York, NY)

WDYZ AM (Orlando, FL)

WWJZ AM (Philadelphia, PA)

KMIK AM (Phoenix, AZ)

KDZR AM (Portland, OR)

WDZY AM (Richmond, VA)

KIID AM (Sacramento, CA)

KWDZ AM (Salt Lake City, UT)

KRDY AM (San Antonio, TX)

KMKY AM (San Francisco, CA)

KKDZ AM (Seattle, WA)

WSDZ AM (St. Louis, MO)

WWMI AM (Tampa, FL)

ESPN Radio

WMVP (Chicago, IL)

KESN (Dallas-Fort Worth, TX)

KSPN (Los Angeles, CA)

WEPN (New York, NY)

WDDZ AM (Pittsburgh, PA)

Publishing

Hyperion Books

ABC Daytime Press

Hyperion

Jump At The Sun

Mirimax Books

Voice

Disney Publishing Worldwide

Disney Digital Books

Disney English

Disney Global Book Group

Global Children's Magazines

U.S. Magazines

ESPN The Magazine (50% with Hearst)

ESPN Books

Parks and Resorts

Adventures by Disney

Disney Cruise Line

Disneyland Resort

Disneyland Resort Paris (51%)

Disney Vacation Club

Hong Kong Disneyland (48%)

Shanghai Disney Resort (43%)

Tokyo Disney Resort (Owned and operated the Oriental Land Company)

Walt Disney Imagineering

Walt Disney World Resort

Other

The Baby Einstein Company

Club Penguin

Disney Consumer Products

The Disney Store

Disney Apparel

Disney Accessories & Footwear

Disney Fashion & Home

Disney Food

Disney Health & Beauty

Disney Stationery

Disney Toys

Disney Interactive Media Group

Disney Interactive Studios

Disney Online (Disney.com)

Disney Online Studios

Disney Mobile

El Capitan Theatre

The Muppets Studio

Playdom

Rocket Pack

UTV Software Communications

(list found at http://www.cjr.org/resources/?c=disney)

I was aware that many of these are owned and operated by Disney, but seeing the full list is completely different. They are everywhere! Television, movies, books, theater, parks, radio, stores, and so many others. I think the way that they do things is very smart. Having their feet in a bunch of different areas allows them to maximize the size of any franchise they're interested in making. It could start with a movie, then they could create a TV show spin off of those characters, or a book series. Disney has a presence in media, including social media, everywhere we go, and I think they do a great job with it. The quality of media produced by Disney is good because they have the money to do so due to their high profits. The idea of large companies owning so much of our world can be scary but companies, such as Disney, manage to do it well. 

Back in my day...

Four score and five years ago, the first television broadcast was aired and forever changed how we receive news. I recently spoke with 2 people from an older generation to get their opinion of the evolution of television news, specifically, cable versus networks. Both subjects stated that they never watch local news, and only one of them watch any televised news at all. Terry only watches one news program, CNN Headline news. Why not regular CNN news or any of its cable counterparts? She said that the reason she chooses that specific show is because they mix it up. They talk about the sad or serious stories but they incorporate humorous stories as well. The reason Terry doesn't watch the local news is because she says that it is not relevant enough to her and it is too depressing, but CNN Headline news delivers in a style that isn't so heavy. She believes that the cable networks and the traditional networks are all equal in quality, but they are covered differently. To her, traditional news networks such as ABC, CBS, and NBC are too serious and have lacks the entertainment factor found on other programs. Along with headline news, she reads the newspaper. What she likes about that over broadcast news is that she can select to read whatever she wants. She can skip over stories she's not interested in and read the ones that are relevant, something that just isn't an option when receiving news through television.

Brian had a slightly more opinionated take on the subject. He chooses not to watch televised news broadcasts at all. He believes that all programs on both the cable and traditional networks have a political agenda and oftentimes come off as being bias. When he was growing up, he remembers watching the news where the anchors would give you all the facts and let you decide your own opinions for yourself. He specifically recalled events such as the moon launch and landing, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and the assassination of John Lennon being delivered on the news in a much more credible and neutral way. Brian gets almost all of his news from online sources, specifically an from an app called Flipbook, which allows you to get news stories from a variety of sources all in one place. He prefers this because he can read the same story from a variety of different sources and them form his own opinions on the topic. If he's not getting news from his iPad, then he's reading the Sunday paper. He stated that unlike televised news, newspapers are a reliable, neutral source. The one downside is the timeliness of the whole process. That's where there's an obvious benefit from being available online. 

It is unlikely that television networks will go back to the way that they used to be and we'll have completely unbiased news reporting, but there are plenty of alternative news sources available to those who may be concerned about neutral reporting. 

Articles Drowning in a Sea of Ads

You're waiting in line to check out at Kroger and pick up a magazine. You begin to flip through it. Ad. Ad. Ad. Ad. Ad. Ad. By the time you get to the substance of the magazine it's time for you to ring up your items. This seems to be the situation with most magazines that we see nowadays. Sometimes it even appears that there are more ads than articles. A well known example of this would be Vogue. Pick up any issue of Vogue and you'll have to flip through seemingly never ending Dolce & Gabana, Ralph Lauren, Dior and Prada advertisements. In fact, Vogue has increased their number of advertisements more than 4.5% since 2012. All of the ads are very similar content-wise and all make sense for the magazine they are in (as they should be considering that it costs $173,075 for one full page color advertisement.) The ads are primarily clothing designers, large department stores, and makeup and beauty brands.

On the other hand, there are magazines that are more content-driven, as opposed to ad-driven. A great example of this is National Geographic. Sure, there are some advertisements, it'd be difficult to find magazines today that didn't, but they don't draw away from the content of the magazine. If you were to open a National Geographic, you wouldn't be so bombarded by ads that you would be deterred from finding the actual articles that the issue has to offer.  What's interesting is the difference in the subject matter of the articles and the items that are advertised. In National Geographic you can find ads for perfume, clothes, shoes, jewelry, makeup, and designers. While the content of Vogue appears to be influenced by the advertisers that are featured in it, National Geographic is obviously not adjusting their content to pertain to the ads in the magazine. 

I do think that it's possible to have a balance of content and ads. National Geographic is evidence of this because they are much more focused on the articles and stories which is the original purpose of a magazine.