Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Disneyomatics: Media, Branding, And Urban Space In Post-Katrina New Orleans, Helen Morgan Parmett

Communication Studies

Following the events of Hurricane Katrina, the Walt Disney Company took on New Orleans as a special philanthropic project. For many citizens of New Orleans, Disney's active role and its consequent partnership with the city is highly problematic, as evidenced by a spate of newspaper articles after Katrina that expressed fears about the rebuilding leading to the potential "Disneyfication" of the city. Citizens fear Disney will turn the city into something like Times Square-a space emptied of its former meanings and histories and rearticulated to Disney's sanitized family brand, marked by racial, class, and sexual exclusions. Thus, in New Orleans, …