Disneyland: The Bathroom Signs Versus Popular Culture

Stephanie Lin

Writing 2

November 16, 2020

The Walt Disney Company is known as a company that has cemented itself into the childhoods

and homes of millions of people all across the world. Some of its biggest successes are its world-famous

amusement parks. The wild prosperity behind these Disneylands, led to them being a topic of conversa-

tion in all scenarios. Professionals and scholars from a vast range of fields study these parks in their re-

spective genres. The two articles, “A Sustainable Evaluation Method for a Tourism Public Wayfinding

System: A Case Study of Shanghai Disneyland Resort” and “Disneyland and Walt Disney World: Tradi-

tional Values in Futuristic Form”, both address Disneyland in very different environments. The first tack-

les Disneyland using quantitative data and reasoning from an engineer’s objective point of view. The lat-

ter approaches the same topic but from a popular cultural studies perspective. The disparate article struc-

tures, distinctions between the specialized jargon, variance in methods of argumentation, and differences

in analysis techniques in these two writings accentuate engineering and popular culture as genres of their

own.

The engineering article is written by Wenying Zhang, et al., and discusses the previous wayfind-

ing system originally installed at Disneyland Shanghai. It focuses on the weaknesses measured by analyt-

ics and spatial–topological relationships, categorizing the article into the engineering academic genre. The

argument presents claims that the former system lacked effectiveness and caused tourists confusion.1 The

authors propose their own method for improvement and include their own calculations to support it. To

measure the effectiveness of the renovation, the authors also conducted surveys. The article concludes

that the new layout improved tourist satisfaction and was effective.

The purpose of this article is to publish findings from the study for other professionals in the field

that might be interested to refer to the information concluded by the study. Authors often post articles like

this to establish credibility or to bring attention and promote engagement in the topic. The authors posted

it through Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, a publisher that publishes open access peer-re-

viewed and edited journal articles, which provides credibility for the content.2

1. Wenying Zhang et al.!A Sustainable Evaluation Method for a Tourism Public Wayfinding Sys-
tem: A Case Study of Shanghai Disneyland Resort,” MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute,
October 14, 2020), https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/20/8489/htm.

2."Overview," MDPI, accessed December 14, 2020, https://www.mdpi.com/about).

The popular culture article is written by Margaret J. King and published in the Journal of Popular

Culture, the official journal for the Popular Culture Association–categorizing this article into the popular

culture academic genre.3 This article dives into the magic of the Disneyland parks and explores the as-

pects that make Disneyland so notable in popular culture. It presents the argument that these Disney Parks

are unique, unlike any other theme park, and may serve as cultural preserves for the nostalgic images and

dreams of a nation.4 She dissects the history of Disneyland and uses factors like the economic status of

consumers to explain how the theme parks have cemented themselves into popular culture.

The purpose of this article was to elucidate the phenomenon of Disney Parks and their role in

popular culture. King’s argument provides her own reasoning for this. Considering where the article is

published, and the fact that it is listed as a study, the other purposes are to inform and invoke interest in

the relationship between Disneyland and popular culture, which other people in the field may find inter-

esting.

To illustrate my first point, the engineering article follows a specific structure that resembles a

traditional engineering lab report. Like many published lab reports, the authors begin with a brief abstract

describing the claims of the study and its purpose. They then continue onto their introduction, which in-

cludes initial observations, like the inconsistency of informational signage, and their thesis to investigate

the effects of the signage on tourist preferences and experts’ recommendations, and thus evaluate the Dis-

neyland tourist site using quantitative analysis.5 This is followed by the methodology, where the authors

place their key factors of the study like equations and methods they used. Next, is results, where the data

is put into graphs and tables. After this is the discussion, the authors include the results from the public

random surveys they conducted. To finish, the conclusion section, a summarized description of their find-

ings but in a sense that describes the relevance and importance of the entire study. The structure is config-

ured in a manner that follows the timeline of the actual study, allowing the audience to follow along with

3."The Journal of Popular CultureAbout The Journal," The Journal of Popular Culture, accessed
December 14, 2020, http://www.journalofpopularculture.com/).

4.Margaret J. King, !Disneyland and Walt Disney World: Traditional Values in Futuristic Form,”
Wiley Online Library (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, March 5, 2004), https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.prox-
y.library.ucsb.edu:9443/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1981.00116.x, 116.

5. Zhang et al.!A Sustainable Evaluation Method for a Tourism Public Wayfinding System: A Case
Study of Shanghai Disneyland Resort,” Section 1 Paragraph 4; Section 1 Paragraph 2.

the study and this also prevents confusion by creating a step-by-step process. Since this is a unique topic,

the authors don’t reference previous studies.

In addition, some other aspects of this article that categorizes it into the engineering classification

are the genre conventions. The genre conventions in this article include formal language, two graphs,

eight data tables, five mathematical equations, numbered sections, and bolded titles. All of these aspects

formulate an article familiar to those who typically belong to the engineering discourse community. With-

in these sections, the authors use many instances of engineering jargon, such as “topological” and

“macroscopic”, since the target audience is fellow engineers.6 The author assumes the reader has basic

knowledge regarding engineering jargon that otherwise might require the general population to search up.

Considering its publishing site, the audience also consists of scholars from all genres since the MDPI pub-

lishes journals of all types.7

On the contrary, the popular culture article has a structure very different from the engineering

one, resembling a book or a newspaper entry rather than a technical-scientific report. It begins with a

short abstract to provide a summary of the article. This follows a loose essay-like structure, with an intro-

duction to provide her thesis and some insight on her topic. This is followed by multiple body paragraphs

that are separated by ideas in a sequence that follows the history of the park and builds to specific aspects

of the park that provide context as to why the park is special, then ends with a conclusion. But an interest-

ing add on appears at the end where King includes an appendix to display a range of flowcharts that show

the transformation of traditions like the ones she mentions in her article and to clear up any confusion.8

To add on, the popular culture article also contains genre conventions specific to the popular cul-

ture category. Some of these consist of pathos, logos, various quotes, capitalized letters, varying sentence

structures, and three images with descriptions. One case of pathos occurs when King places various pic-

tures of famous parts of the parks to evoke nostalgia in the audience along with the imagery she creates

with her writing.9 She uses logos when applying trends and phenomena to provide logical reasoning. The

6. Zhang et al. Section 6 Paragraph 1.

7."Overview," MDPI, accessed December 14, 2020, https://www.mdpi.com/about).

8. King, !Disneyland and Walt Disney World: Traditional Values in Futuristic Form,” 138-140.

9. King, 132.

terminology is much more reader-friendly since the terms used specifically by this discourse community

are very common to the average person. There is a wider discourse community for this article since pop

culture is a topic that generally more people are familiar with as opposed to engineering, which people

may find too complicated for their liking. King also assumes that the audience has basic knowledge re-

garding Disney Parks. Similar to the wayfinding article, the argument in this article is very specific and

does not reference previous studies. The article, although it is very specific to pop culture experts, uses

simple terms, making it accessible to the general population.

Subsequently, the argumentation technique used abides by the ones in the engineering disciplines.

The authors build their inductive argument using a thesis–specifically a hypothesis–that they place in their

introduction and prove using their study and the concluding data. The engineering article follows the sci-

entific methods of argumentation by using statistical and mathematical measurements. For example, the

authors insert the equation, K=aK1+bK2, as one they used to calculate the adjustment factor.10 The results

of the equations are used as key statistics for the authors to reinforce their claim. Moreover, the results of

the surveys provide reactions from real people, which gives another realm of evidence aside from numeri-

cal and abiotic aspects. The spreadsheets, color-coordinated graphs of data, and equations provide the au-

dience the direct source from which the data was derived from. This indirectly builds their argument by

allowing the reader to create their own opinions from the numbers. In their conclusion, the authors show

that this process they created was effective enough to use for future research in other parks as well.11

Their confidence adds to the effectiveness of their argument since they believe in it enough to suggest

others to use it as well. The authors use first person perspective in these aspects of their paper to clarify

and make it known that the study was done themselves.

The analysis of the evidence in engineering is very different from pop culture articles. It is evi-

dent in this article because almost all the analysis is centered around the quantitative and qualitative data

they produced. For example, the authors analyze their evidence, the survey results, by stating that 80.2%

of the respondents thought that the public information system was essential, proving that the quantitative

10.Zhang et al. !A Sustainable Evaluation Method for a Tourism Public Wayfinding System: A
Case Study of Shanghai Disneyland Resort,” Section 3 Paragraph 6.

11.Zhang et al. Section 6 Paragraph 4.

analysis aspect of their argument is prominent.12 The hard facts and clear reasoning lead to a convincing

argument. A majority of the analysis is written in third person, this helps keep the paper objective while

also helping the authors build their argument by setting a definite tone, resulting in more credibility.

However, the popular culture article presents a very different approach to the argumentation and

use of evidence. King presents and builds her argument using a clear thesis in the form of a statement,

which she backs up by referencing historical trends, evidence, as well as quotes from other credible au-

thors and professionals. One of her main points in her argument is that these Disney Parks immerse the

consumer in another world, which she backs up with a quote by Walt Disney himself. It reads, “I don’t

want the public to see the real world they live in while they’re in the park..I want them to feel they are in

another world.”13 This direct quote from the source itself enhances her argument greatly as it gives credi-

bility to her claims and the audience is more likely to believe the rest of her points. King uses third person

perspective through her entire paper, setting a definitive and confident tone that is able to strengthen her

analysis and argumentation. This presents and builds her argument to be a factual rather than an opinion-

ated one.

The analysis used in this article is also very different from the engineering article. Here, King an-

alyzes the historical trends of culture and traditions while keeping her quantitative analysis to a minimum.

For instance, she credits the massive popularity of Disneyland to the unprecedented increase in middle-

class affluence and leisure time; combined with a booming automobile industry and a nationwide freeway

system; which in turn caused at least one pilgrimage to Disneyland or World as a popular culture “mecca”

of nearly religious importance for Americans of all ages.14 Her mention of this trend is just one example

of the many instances of logos in her article. She provides logical reasoning for each of her points and

does so in a way that guides the audience along with her so they gain her perspective. This method proves

to be effective throughout the article. King’s analysis and argumentation are extremely similar to other

articles of popular culture concerning the reasoning and use of evidence.

12.Zhang et al. Section 4 Paragraph 1.

13.King, !Disneyland and Walt Disney World: Traditional Values in Futuristic Form,”. 121.

14.King, 117.

As a result of all these aspects listed, the noticeable differences between these two articles in

terms of argumentation, jargon, analysis, and structure highlight the contrasts between the academic dis-

ciplines of engineering and popular culture. The methodology behind their argumentation with statements

in the engineering article backed up by numerical calculations with real-life surveys vs the logical reason-

ing in King’s article prove to be some of the most obvious points. Furthermore, both articles reflect struc-

tures from their respective genres; the popular culture one resembles an essay or typical writeup; the en-

gineering article resembles a typical lab report. In addition, each article also contains jargon and genre

conventions that abide by their field of study. For these reasons, the results of the papers being written and

appearing extremely different stem from the differences of their respective genres, despite the two being

academic articles.

Bibliography

King, Margaret J. “Disneyland and Walt Disney World: Traditional Values in Futuristic Form.

Wiley Online Library. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, March 5, 2004. https://onlinelibrary-wiley-

com.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:9443/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1981.00116.x

"Overview." MDPI. Accessed December 14, 2020. https://www.mdpi.com/about.

”The Journal of Popular CultureAbout The Journal." The Journal of Popular Culture. Accessed

December 14, 2020. http://www.journalofpopularculture.com/.

Zhang, Wenying, Lian Zhu, Zixuan Zhang, Zhan Zhang, and Linjun Lu. “A Sustainable Evaluation

Method for a Tourism Public Wayfinding System: A Case Study of Shanghai Disneyland Resort.”

MDPI. Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, October 14, 2020. https://www.mdpi.com/

2071-1050/12/20/8489/htm.