RA Under Sign of Mickey Mouse and Co.

Chris Dunfield

Stacey Knapp

English 1A

05 March 2013

Rhetorical Analysis- Todd Gitlins' Under the Sign of Mickey Mouse & Co.

The article written by Todd Gitlin, Under the Sign of Mickey Mouse and Co., deals with American Media and its effect on American culture, and consequently, societies everywhere. The intended audience for this article is people of non-western cultures specifically, but is written broadly and can be intended for Westernized audience as well. The purpose of this article is to depict American Culture as a “portal into the pleasure dome.” (834) Todd makes the claim that American culture represents the rest of the world, and is both harmless and “...a global 'fun' culture...”(824) He further claims that, “exporters benefit from local economies afforded by serial production.” (828)

Todd Gitlin uses several rhetorical strategies, but the main one is exemplification with the intention to persuade people American culture is “playful, expressive, and comfortably uplifting...”(834) I feel like American culture takes away from thousands of years of persevered traditions and diversity of beliefs, rituals, tastes, etc. Globalization has thus far served as a gateway for multinational corporations to set up and strengthen a system of dependence built upon tourism and the development and exploitation of export sectors in undeveloped nations. Pushing one's views on a society that doesn’t want them and is most likely better of without them is unethical and unjust. Todd uses exemplification when he explains how corporations have sold their emblems to the point that universally, for example, everyone knows the Coca-Cola symbol, yet people are not aware of their practices in India, or other acts of environmental crime. Pushing this romanticized Western ideology upon undeveloped nations gives strength to the idea that they can catch up under the current capitalist system, which is both improbable and impossible. The current global capitalist system relies on free-market trade, which is necessarily unequal. I remember my childhood, watching television, and the tremendous effect it had one me. I would be spellbound by the television shows and commercials, it would consume my mind at times. This corporate control of my mind through media made me more disposed to commercialization, consumerism, materialism, and superficiality. The corporate companies have effectively starting selling culture and will stop and nothing in the quest to do so. We as a community must become aware of what is going on, and reclaim a common public space outside of the market. Not having a public 'town hall' of sorts that is outside of the market, (such as in malls) takes away from our democracy. We need to watch what we consume, be it media, fast food, drugs, or any other. Parents of children, or teachers in schools need to teach kids about the effect of such corporate control of the political, economic, and social sectors of society.

Word Count: 476