ABSTRACT
This chapter offers three approaches to the intersection between transmedia and politics, using the Star Wars franchise as its central example throughout. First, it illustrates the challenges inherent in applying the traditions of ideology criticism to a complex and large-scale transmedia multitext. Second, the benefits and limitations of a political economy approach are demonstrated and explained. And third, an analysis of the divergent uses to which the Star Wars franchise is put by competing forms of fandom illustrates the pragmatics of political appropriation within participatory digital culture.
