Staying True to Disney: College Students' Resistance to Criticism of The Little Mermaid

摘要

This article discusses the implementation of a media literacy program in a college classroom in the form of an extended critique and analysis of Disney's The Little Mermaid. Students' decoding of Disney's messages and their resistance to critique of the film are analyzed using four areas of research: audience research, media literacy, critical pedagogy, and psychology's cognitive dissonance theory.