Reflecting on the research papers

First, a quick overview of the papers: twelve students wrote about television, making that the most popular topic. There were five papers about advertising, four about music, three about film, two about video games, one about sports, one about book publishing, one about politics, and one about otaku.

Overall, the quality of your research and writing was excellent and I've learned valuable information that I plan to share with future students. Truth be told, some of the things I learned disturbed me. Nonetheless, I'm grateful to have learned them. I could share some fascinating facts from each and every paper, but I have to finish grading so I'll limit myself to a couple of examples.

1.  Jeremy E. Uecker studied married couples versus single individuals and found that being married or engaged "curbs drunkenness, and married adults, especially those who marry at ages 22 to 26, are more satisfied with their lives" (emphasis added). Thanks to Katherine Harper, who cited this information in her paper about A Wedding Story and similar reality TV shows.
2. When methamphetamine was first introduced it was not an illicit drug. Japan used meth commercially and Britain and Germany used it to increase the effectiveness of their soldiers. Thanks to John Huffman who cited this information in his paper about Breaking Bad.

In this last blog post, I invite you to reflect on what you learned about your specific media text and/or the "bigger picture." For example, did you find any great new sources? Did you uncover any new information that made you rethink your original plan for the paper?

So, what have we learned about Disney?

In the last final chapter of Understanding Disney, Wasko quotes Disney critic Henry Giroux:

Challenging the ideological underpinnings of Disney's construction of common sense is the first step in understanding the ways in which corporate culture has refashioned the relationship between education and entertainment, on the one hand, and institutional power and cultural politics, on the other.

In other words, a critical understanding of Disney is part of a more general critique of corporate and consumer culture.

Building on the quotation from Giroux, can you cite any specific examples of how corporate culture has refashioned the relationship between education and entertainment, either here at JMU or at other schools you've attended?