Thursday, December 9, 2010

Part h: Spotting the “Disney”


Due to rapid globalisation, Africa can spot some traces of "Disney" characteristics. Using the abstract of the book: The Disneyization of Society by Alan Bryman, I will elaborate about the Disneyization.





1. Theming
By creating a theme for a certain environment, it tends to attract more people to the area than other usual places. In Masai, there is Masai Mara National Reserve, which is the most popular of Kenyan parks and reserves. It themed itself as the only wildlife park that gives better options to see all the Big Five (elephants, lions, leopards, rhinos and buffaloes) in one place. In addition, the world-famous wildebeest migration can be watched there every year. http://www.kenya-advisor.com/masai-mara.html
Also when people view the African arts and craft, there tend to be a few themes coming up over and over. These themes include couple, a woman and a child, a male with a weapon or animal, or an outsider. These themes are representations of different things that are significant to the African culture. http://www.africaguide.com/culture/artcraft.htm




2. Dedifferentiation of consumption.
This simply means that there is a general trend whereby the forms of consumption associated with different institutional spheres become interlocked with each other and increasingly difficult to distinguish. For example, there is hardly any distinction between shopping and theme parks and visitors now are forced to go through shops selling merchandise in order to exit. When visiting Masai, the Masai people will tend to treat tourists as cash cows. They will often pressure tourists to buy all kinds of things. Also merchandises made by them are placed at the entrance of hotels.




3. Merchandising.
This means that promotion of goods in the form of or bearing copyright images and logos. Masai people will have merchandising like woodcarvings displayed at the entrances of some hotels as special attraction. Merchandises must have a glossy finish to make it more appealing. http://www.safariweb.com/safarimate/masai.htm




4. Emotional labour
Postcards and photographs deliberately portrayed the Masai tribe in their traditional costumes abound in the area. This may be because it is the interest of the visitors as they want to see the exotic tribes with exotic practices. Thus, i feel that the indigenous people do not have the freedom to voice out their unhappiness.

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