... that's made for you and me?

Susan Willis’ essay “Disney World: Public Use/Private State” is a critical evaluation of the Disney World theme park in Orlando, Florida. Specifically, it examines her personal experience of touring the park; the behavior of her fellow visitors; how Disney World orchestrates every activity and rigorously controls every aspect of its public image; and finally, it attempts to decipher what these things might signify in terms of our society and culture.

Willis argues that to experience Disney World is to confront an almost pure expression of industrial capitalism: every aspect of life seems to be a commodity, which is to be administered as efficiently as possible to the customers. The customers, for their part, are passive participants: everything they do at the park has been anticipated and scripted. Yet she describes how the Disney corporation also makes every effort to present the image of Disney World as a place of freedom, a place where the customer has no cares or fears, a place where impossible fictions are made real. It is a place that is nowhere on Earth.

Willis refers repeatedly to an “utopian impulse,” which I understand to mean “a desire for a better, more ideal world.” She suggests that by billing Disney World as an ideal place, they have successfully sold an otherwise creepy, de-individualizing experience to millions. Willis then draws an analogy to mass culture as a whole.

As I have said, Willis’ essay looks at several aspects of Disney World, from the experience of queuing for the attractions to the environmental impact of the park’s garbage. Each element is introduced through her own observations. The theme is then developed into a broader pronouncement about how this aspect is related to tendencies in the broader culture of industrial America, whereupon she turns her attention to a different but related aspect. What emerges is a foreboding portrait of a society dominated by corporations that, though informed by good intentions, is essentially inhuman.

An interesting aspect of Willis’ arguments is that although her evidence is primarily anecdotal, it hardly needs corroboration. As one of the most massive bastions of the common American culture, any American reader, at least, already knows nearly everything about what Disney sells. Anyone who had also attended any theme park would likely find that their own experiences were similar to hers -though they probably did not have quite the same attitude that she did.

One thing Willis does not mention, which I have wondered about, is the contrast between amusement parks and old-fashioned carnivals and fairs. On the surface they look similar, except that the parks lack the best things about the fair: the exhibits of all the interesting stuff everyone’s been up to for the last year. Willis would probably say that those are precisely the sort of thing that corporations are incapable of caring about.

A Few Words of Introduction

My name is Paul Edward Fetherolf. I’m a nontraditional student at Ohio University with junior standing. I'm a journalism major. That is, I intend to major in journalism. They're sort of particular about who gets to do that around here. Never mind, that's my problem. So, what does a journalist do? Well, from Lois Lane taking notes on some nefarious activity she’s uncovered to dry debates over proper grammar and usage, journalism is all about writing for the public.

I should add that I’m thinking mostly about news writing and editing here. Broadcast journalism has similar goals, but involves a different process. Traditional journalism- such as newspapers and magazines- is more my area of interest, even if it is dying by inches. As I currently understand it, traditional journalism involves two major activities, reporting and editing.

Reporters are professional writers: in the end, it’s their job to tell the story. Although most people probably have an image of journalists howling questions at politicians and murder suspects, the interviews are just one part of the process. They have to research their subject, and come up with an ‘angle,’ an overall approach that will generate interest. Though reporters are the most visible journalists, they are on the receiving end of a fair amount of input and oversight. That’s where editors come in.

Editors have many different responsibilities. Copy editors are the essential quality control of a newsroom. They correct factual and grammatical errors, and they revise manuscripts so that they are clear and concise. Copy editors also design the page layouts that will be used when the magazine or newspaper goes to print. Managing editors direct the entire process; the guy who’s always yelling at Peter Parker is a managing editor (actually, he’s the top managing editor, the editor-in-chief).

The Ultimate Role of journalism is to inform the public as best it can, with integrity and clarity. All the activity I have described is directed toward publishing a newspaper or magazine that members of the public will find to be relevant, interesting, and informative. That’s what I want to be part of.