Disney animation: Global diffusion and local appropriation of culture

Abstract

Children’s media products reflect the cultural values of their producers as well as the social, political and economic conditions under which they were produced. Watching an animated feature, therefore, cannot be regarded as an innocent and simple act of consumption. It rather involves a complex process of coding/decoding and appropriating cultural meanings. The relation between structured patterns of global communication on the one hand, and the local conditions under which Disney cartoon products are marketed and consumed in the Arab world, on the other, can be perceived as the main axis of globalized diffusion and local appropriation of American cultural values and lifestyle. The consequences of which are difficult to foretell.