From the case study, the vulnerability of Disney is based on their inability to exercise strategic communication to the public, leading to immense backlash and negative publicity that finally led to the rescission of the decision to build a new theme park at Prince William County. According to Knight (2014), historians and civil groups argued that Disney was commercializing and vulgarizing the U.S. history by constructing the proposed park. According to Sandlin and Garlen (2016), Disney’s commercialization culture has an eroding effect on the civil society. A major contributor to the negative publicity and backlash was the public perception on Disney’s practice of falsifying the history as described by Allen (2014).
Furthermore, Newman (2017) exhibit that Disney have had a history of misrepresenting significant historical occurrences such as the Civil War and slavery. As such, Disney had negative public perception in regards to the representation of the country’s history prior to the project. The failure or lack of proper and strategic communication by Disney to the public entrenched and worsened Disney’s tainted image in regards with the preservation of the country’s valuable history. Furthermore, Disney failed to clarify how the theme park which was located near the memorable historical and cultural sites would fail to commercialize the sites and erode the rich history. The texts by Allen (2014), Newman (2017), and Sandlin and Gralen (2016) were similar in castigating Disney’s culture of either misrepresenting or eroding history.
Biblically, the book of Ephesians describes that the image portrayed by an individual either earns them honor or contempt. For instance, Ephesians 4:29 states that, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” (New International Version). In regards to the case, Disney failed communicate deeply about the proposed theme park, paving way for doubts and disquiets among the public.