Journal of Communication Inquiry

This article analyzes the Walt Disney Company's adaptation of outsourcing and the relationship between the economics of outsourcing, the goods thus produced bearing Disney Company--licensed trademarks, and transnational corporations' use of a global division of labor. Taking Marxist and institutional approaches to capitalist labor practices and globalization, the author details Disney's outsourcing by examining the presence of Disney products in the Tucson market. Unlike most analyses of outsourcing, the author looks first at a local market and the array of Disney goods within that market and contextualizes the local array in terms of global business practices of contracting, subcontracting, and setting the conditions of labor. Results indicate that almost half of the products were produced by countries outside the United States and other industrialized countries, with an annual wage per worker of $3,955. This demonstrates one specific way in which a transnational media conglomerate uses the global division of labor to increase its profits.