Disney Co.
The Walt Disney Studios Assets
Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group
§ Dimension Films (Disney owns the Dimension Films library for all films released before September 30, 2005)
Animation
§ Walt Disney Animation Studios (formerly Walt Disney Feature Animation)
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Miravista Films
Patagonik Film Group (joint venture between Disney and Artear Argentina)
Buena Vista Worldwide Home Entertainment (distributes under the following labels: Walt Disney Home Entertainment, Touchstone Home Entertainment, Hollywood Pictures Home Entertainment, Miramax Home Entertainment, Dimension Home Video, ABC Video, Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
Buena Vista Records
Disney Music Publishing (see Buena Vista Music Group page for a list of publishers that are part of Disney Music Publishing)
Disney Theatrical Productions
Hyperion Theatrical
Disney Live Family Entertainment
§ Disney on Ice – produced by Feld Entertainment
§ Disney Live – produced by Feld Entertainment
U.S. Television Networks:
§ Greengrass Productions
§ Victor Television Productions
§ ABC Kids
§ ABC News
§ ABC Owned & Operated Stations
§ WLS Chicago – Channel 7
§ WJRT Flint – Channel 12
§ KFSN Fresno – Channel 30
§ KTRK Houston – Channel 13
§ KABC Los Angeles – Channel 7
§ WABC New York – Channel 7
§ WPVI Philadelphia – Channel 6
§ WTVD Raleigh-Durham – Channel 11
§ KGO San Francisco – Channel 7
§ WTVG Toledo – Channel 13
Disney ABC Cable Networks
§ Jetix
§ ABC Family – formerly Fox Family & The Family Channel
§ BVS Entertainment – formerly Saban Entertainment
§ Jetix Latin America
§ Jetix Europe (Disney 74%, public shareholders 26%)
§ SIP Animation (undisclosed minority stake)
§ SOAPnet
U.S. Cable Network Equity Holdings:
Lifetime Entertainment Services (joint venture between Disney (50%) and Hearst Corporation (50%))
A&E Television Networks (Disney 37.5%, Hearst Corporation 37.5%, NBC Universal 25%)
§ History Channel International
§ Crime & Investigation Network
§ Biography Magazine (published by Hearst Corporation)
Production & Syndication Divisions:
ABC Studios – formerly Touchstone Television & ABC Television Studios
Walt Disney Television Animation
Disney-ABC Domestic Television – formely Buena Vista Television
Buena Vista Productions
Disney-ABC International Television – formely Buena Vista International Television
Disney Educational Productions
International Television Networks & Programming Platforms:
Disney Channel Worldwide
§ Disney Channel (25 channels worldwide)
§ Toon Disney (8 channels worldwide)
§ Playhouse Disney (9 channels worldwide)
§ Jetix (channel and branded programming blocks in 80 countries)
§ Hungama
§ ABC1
International Business Ventures:
Walt Disney International Business Ventures & Business Development
§ Super RTL (joint venture between Disney (50%) and RTL Group (50%))
§ GMTV (Disney 25%, ITV plc 75%)
§ HBO Central Europe (joint venture between Disney, TimeWarner and Sony)
§ UTV Software Communications (Disney 14.9%)
Radio:
Publishing:
§ ABC Daytime Press
§ Hyperion East
§ Hypeion Audiobooks
§ VOICE
(Disney 80%, Hearst Corporation 20%)
ESPN on ABC – formerly ABC Sports
ESPN International (see for complete list of channels)
§ North American Sports Network
§ ESPN Star Sports (joint venture between Disney (50%) and News Corporation (50%))
§ TSN (30%)
ESPN The Magazine (published by Hearst Corporation)
ESPN Books (an imprint of Disney’s Hyperion Books)
ESPN Home Entertainment (currently distributed by Genius Products)
ESPN Outdoors
§ BASS
ESPN Digital Center
Arena Football League (undisclosed minority stake acquired December 2006)
Websites & Online Destinations
ABC.com
ABCNews.com
Go.com – formerly GO Network
FamilyFun.com
Wondertime.com
Disney Family (Family.com)
TouchstonePictures.com
Miramax.com
BVOnlineEntertainment.com
Muppets.com
Jetix.tv
HollywoodRecords.com
LyricStreetRecords.com
ABCFamily.com
Video.com
SOAPnet.com
Oscar.com
Hundreds of other websites relating to Disney properties & businesses, just a few are listed above
Mobile Services and Entertainment
Disney Mobile Studios
Starwave Mobile
Living Mobile
Minds Eye Productions
Enorbus
mobile2win China
§ Jump At the Sun
§ Volo Books
§ Michael di Capua Books
[edit] Parks & Resorts
Anaheim, California, United States
Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States
Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, near Tokyo (owned and operated by The Oriental Land Company through a licensing agreement with Disney)
Marne-la-Vallee, France (Disney 51%, public shareholders 49%)
§ Disney’s Davy Crockett Ranch
Hong Kong, China (Disney 43%, HKSAR government 57%)
Competition:
CBS corp
Time Warner
News corp
Ethics Online
I think that in researching a particular subject it is important to let the people that you are researching what your agenda is at the start of the project. I feel that there is always a way to study a group and to have them participate in your research rather then to just be observed. I have found that in many situations people are willing to discuss whatever it is that you are researching (though with some provisions on keeping their identity anomonous.)
I think that the main problem with how this case went about researching is that the participants on the website are going to feel exploited when they find out that the researcher’s persona is just an alias and that since they have had no contact with the researcher.
There is also the idea that there are private spaces online. These spaces are identified by the use of membership in an online community. The fact that one must use a login name and password gives the user a sense security.
Netflix.com
How does the site make money?
The site offers 5 rental plans for DVDs. The costlier plans have allow you to have more DVDs and unlimited hours of movie watching on your PC in order to encourage people to buy the more expensive plans. The site also recruits new users by offering a free trial, which will then turn into a paid plan, and also by allowing other websites to become ‘affiliates.’ In exchange for their advertising, netflix gives the producer of the website $9.00 for every new customer that the website brought to netflix.
What is its “niche”/ comparative advantage?
The niche is that the consumers no longer need to drive back and forth from blockbusters and worry about return fees, also there are no due dates on the movies, and you can keep it as long as you would like. In fact, I think that Blockbusters took off their return fee in order to keep up with netflix.
Your impressions? Would you shop there?
My sister and some friends have netflix accounts, and they love it. I think that it is pretty well done, and that it would not have been as effective if their were due dates on movies, or the shipping wasn’t paid for, or if it took more then a couple days to get your movies. So I would get a netflix account at some point, however, I think the the site is more appealing to people with permanent addresses.
Clintons Website
I would expect to find the most important stances that Clinton supports on her website. I think that someone who is seeking information on the candidates wants to find out what measures the candidate supports (like gun-laws, gay marriage, and the war in Iraq.) Also, I think that I would expect to see something about how they are going to divide the federal budget, as well as what past policies they disagree or agree with.
When first accessing the site, they ask you to sign up as a supporter of Hillary, which caught me a little off guard since I wanted to find out more about her as a candidate, not sign up to support her. So I skipped the sign up and went to the actual web page. Honestly, I felt that the front page of her website was overwhelming. There was a promotion that told the viewers of the website that if they showed their support for Hillary Clinton then they could see both Hillary and Elton John. There was also a box of communities which included many web 2.0 sites, such as flickr, myspace, facebook, youtube, eons, and twitter. The front page also included “Hillary TV” which shows several videos that support Hillary, as well as a “Spotlight” section which has links to all the news articles that supports Hillary.
The rest of the website is a little less cluttered and more managable. We can clearly find the issues that she supports by looking at the “Issues” tab, and there is an extensive list of speeches that she has given since April 2006, which contributes to the information that we can find on candidates views.
Looking at the website, I feel that it is more geared towards active supporters of Hillary, rather then undecided voters trying to make a decision to vote for Hillary or not. It seems that most of the website focuses on way that the public can contribute and show support for Hillary (the homepage, for instance, dedicates about half of the space to contribution links) including a whole section called “Take Action.”
I decided to compare Hillary Clinton’s site with Barack Obama’s and i found that they are actually very similar. Both start with the “sign up to support” before bringing up the main web page. They both have the ways to contribute dominate the homepage, and have easy to find links that lead to what issues the candidates are supporters of. Obama has a more extensive list of web 2.0 applications then Hillary, which includes: facebook, myspace, flickr, eons, twitter, blackplanet, faithbase, and many others. Both candidates use youtube to show videos from past events, and include both political and popular culture videos. Obama also uses text messaging to gain support. I feel that Obama’s website is a better format in that it is less cluttered, it is also more accessible for younger voters in that it uses more text messaging, youtube, and other web 2.0 things. I also feel that Obama’s site is geared more towards ethnic minorities since it included Blackplanet, AsianAve, and MiGente for some of its web 2.0 applications.
After reviewing all this, I think that the candidates websites aren’t the first place people go to research on their potential president. Instead, I feel that the more mainstream media, such as the news, will tend to lead people on to what candidate they would like to support, which makes them look at the youtube videos, and then the websites. As a result, I think that the main purpose of these websites are resource mobilization for the candidates by strong supporters.
Blog #9 Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property refers to the work that someone creates- like art, literary work, music, inventions, symbols, names, images, and designs. Once this work is produced it is automatically copyrighted. Typically a copyright will last for the span of the creators life plus seventy years. Depending on what type of work it is it will vary. This is a way for the creator to reap the benefits of his or her work, but I also feel that it hinders innovation. I think an applicable example of this is Imitrex and Maxalts, which are both migraine medication. What happened was that they found an effective pill for treating migraines; under the copyright law no other company could release a similar type of medication for a couple of years. As a result Imitrex and Maxalt could keep their prices high. In this case, I feel that they are putting the whole society at a disadvantage since they are eliminating the competition to develop a more effective pill, as well as, keeping the prices high for their product since the demand is high without any competition.
Another aspect of Intellectual Property is Trade mark. Our culture and society is essentially made up of symbols. Even when we visit another country with a different language we can figure out the necessities (restrooms, hotels, food, airplane, etc) by the similar use of symbols. The same is true of logos. For many companies the logo is a vital indicator of their brand name. The Mac apple has become an iconic symbol in today’s society, for example. As a result, the Mac apple is a trademark and no one else is allowed to use that symbol, unless they want to be sued for all they have got.
Paper Topics
One idea for a paper is to research what impacts the Internet has for organizing social movements. On one hand, it has become increasingly easy to find people who will support your cause, and you can sign online petitions. However, on the other hand, protest and physical meetings are being replaced by online communications. Does the online aspect of many of todays social movements make it more or less prevalent in our society? I ’ think that there is any one answer for this, and so I would want to examine how people participate in movements today and how they did in the past. I would analysis how close people become to the issue in comparison to the past, and basic patterns with this subject.
My other idea for a paper is to look a little closer at the Open Software movement. The video we watched in class was a good introduction to the subject, but what has happened since then? What kinds of tactics are the Open Software supporters using to gain a following?
Blog #8
The Revolution OS documentary did a good job of introducing the origins of Open Software. It particularly gives the viewer a good look at the culture behind the Open Software movement and of the hacker community.
Prior to the video I knew that Open Software meant that the code was available, and that Firefox is Open Software- but that was about the extent of it. Through the video i was able to see why the code was important to know, and the impact that having the code available would be.
I believe that the OS movement can be considered a social movement. The people behind Open Source are trying to fight against the privatization of programs to allow people to manipulate their own programs, and do what they want with them. Basically I feel that the Open Source Movement are trying to establish rights that people should have in the internet world- which still have not been established.
As mentioned earlier, I use Firefox. It works much better with many of the sites that I have to use (mainly Blackboard and Tlearn) and I think that it is very user friendly. I know Tlearn is also an Open Source product- and I like it far better then Blackboard (which I believe is not an Open Source product). I was looking at the websites that give the links for downloading Open Source programs, and there was a lot to offer. I think that in the future we can expect that Microsoft wont be able to download their programs into computers and instead people will beginning depending on Open Source programs more and more.
Blog #7
The Digital Divide
The internet seems to be a great resource. It is available in multiple places (if you have access to a computer and wifi), it is blind in terms of race and class since it eliminates the face to face interactions with people. Recently the internet has become important basically all areas of life”others caution that the differential spread of the Internet across the population will lead to increasing inequalities improving the prospects of those who are already in privileged positions while denying opportunities for advancement to the underprivileged.” (Hargittai) Internet usage has risen dramatically in the past decade in a half among all groups. It is difficult to interpret the data since in graphs it is clear that all groups have continued to increase internet aptness, but it isn’t so clear that some groups are rising much more then others and as a result “there has been an increasing concern regarding the patterns of its diffusion across the population. Reports have documented the presence of an Internet “digital divide”, i.e. inequalities in access to and use of the medium, with lower levels of connectivity among women, racial and ethnic minorities, people with lower incomes, rural residents and less educated people.” (Hargittai) Comparisons across groups suggests that certain divides persist and in some cases are growing with respect to Internet diffusion…some have cautioned that the differential spread of the Internet will lead to increasing inequalities benefiting those who are already in advantageous positions and denying access to better resources to the underprivileged. This means that the privilege class will continue to gain more social and cultural capital through the internet, and the underprivileged groups will continue to lack the tools and resources they need to better their lives. In addition, “there are factors beyond mere connectivity that need to be considered when discussing the potential implications of the Internet for inequality.” In addition to relying on basic measures of access to a medium, we need to consider the following more nuanced measures of use: 1. technical means (quality of the equipment) 2. autonomy of use (location of access, freedom to use the medium for one’s preferred activities) 3. social support networks (availability of others one can turn to for assistance with use, size of networks to encourage use) 4. experience (number of years using the technology, types of use patterns)
These four factors together contribute to one’s level of skill. Skill is defined as the ability to efficiently and effectively use the new technology.” It seems that there would be a high correlation with income, class and job status- all of which are correlated with each other and also with race. That being said- it is clear that there is a digital divide. I think that there will always be a digital divide, since the privileged will continue to have resources that that underprivileged can not afford, however, there are steps that can be taken that will allow everyone to have the access and education that you can gain from the internet.
Blog #6
There is a sense that kids today are wasting most of their time online. However, I feel that it is a great networking tool for kids as well. Through facebook, kids are able to find classmates and peers, they can apply for jobs online, check movie times and communicate with friends with AIM. I feel that children for the most part are able to still lead comparable lives as there older counterparts- it is just that they make plans and research things in a different way.
This is not to say that there aren’t some exceptions. It may seem that some of the kids in the documentary are out of touch with the “outside world,” but I honestly think that their lives would be just as our of touch without the internet. By “outside world” I am assuming Lauren means the local community surrounding the individual. I think in order to determine the impact that the internet has had on the face to face interactions among children we would need to further examine how often and what kind of internet resources kids use.
Frontline
I thought that the Frontline episode brought up a lot of good points, though nothing was particularly new. I feel that many people in my generation and younger know the threats assoicated with the internet already- and they often take the necessary percautions to protect themselves from predators and such. The parents in the documentary, however, really didnt seem to know what to do when it came to what there children are up too. The one mother from the suburb was so over controling that she was actually forcing her children to withhold even more information then they probably would have, had she not been so controling. There seems to be a lot of media coverage on online pedaphiles, and in a way I feel that it is blown out of proportion in some parents minds. Yes, there are bad people out there, but it is the child that ultimately has deciding factor one what they participate in or not.
As far as the two girls on the documentary, it seems that they wanted to place to feel accepted. Since the “ana” girl knows that her parents will lecture her on healthy eating habits (since that is what a good parent would do) she decided to find a place where people would embrace her. She used the internet to find a community where people have the same values of her- which can be detrimental. Jess, on the other hand- didnt like the real her, and so she made a sort of idealized version of herself- one that her parents would not approve of.
Since there is such a generation gap between the children and parent for the internet, it is difficult for parent to moniter their childrens activities- which may be threatening for them. It seems that education on both sides may be healpful.
