Comm 145 Final Paper #1

4/29/2016 The Lucasfilm-
Disney Merger As
it Relates to
Media Theory
Comm 145 Dr. Frances Winters
Tyler Livy
University of the Pacific Spring 2016

THE LUCASFILM-DISNEY MERGER AS IT RELATES TO MEDIA THEORY Livy 1
Introduction
On October 30th, 2012, fans in the hundreds of millions were to experience a drastic
change in a galaxy far, far away. The then CEO of Disney, Robert Iger, acquired the company
Lucasfilm for four million dollars. Along with the merger, Disney acquired the rights to the
multimillion dollar franchise Star Wars, and announced plans for a new trilogy of movies.
Through Star Wars, Luasfilm revolutionized special effects within the film industry, triggering a
new era of movies dominated by CGI. In 2012, before its revitalization, it garnered seven
hundred and seventy-nine million. It has been four years since that merger has gone into effect,
during which time the first of the promised movies has been released, to break several box office
records. With the movie alone, Disney-Luasfilm earned two billion internationally. This is not
the first time that Disney has acquired such a prestigious, fan -based company and turned it into a
money powerhouse; previously, in 2008, they acquired Marvel Studios, another slowly-dying
franchise that has since released a plethora of box-office successes. In 2011, Marvel’s The
Avengers made one and a half billion internationally. Our concern today is with the business
side of communications, with a particular focus on the LucasFilm-Disney merger.
I will be examining this artifact through the lens of Medium Theory, which is an obscure
theory by most standards because it does not follow the standard course of study within the
transactional model of communication; most American theories tend to focus on the message.
This theory, which was developed in Canada, focuses on the medium, or more specifically, the
way in which the medium itself helps construct the way in which the message is received by the
sender. For this theory, there are two main branches of thought. The first branch is called
Traditional Media Theory, which is named such because it was developed before the rise of
muli-national capable media, such as the television, internet, and computer. New Media is the

second branch of the theory, developed to incorporate the ideas generated by new kinds of media
technologies.
Literature Review
When Harold Innis, an economics historian, began working on the foundation of would
become Medium Theory, his very decision to begin work on communications was questioned by
his scholarly colleagues in Toronto. Later Canadian scholars misunderstood Innis’ reasons for
going into communications research, according to Babe (2015), he examines each of the
purported rationales for Innis’ sudden departure from the field of economics. His hypothesis is
that Innis turned away from the theory he was working on at that time, stables theory, because he
was fulling the obligations of a scholar to seek out the truth. The overall purpose of the article is
to investigate why Innis switched from a focus on economic history to a focus on universal
principles of communications.
In investigating this phenomena, Babe uses qualitative methods. First, he does a literary
analyses of a series of contemporaries of Innis, evaluating their rationales for Innis’ revolution in
terms of their accuracy and persuasive ability. To perform this evaluation, he relies on
biographical information about Innis, as well as information taken from his major works. Next,
Babe identifies the catalysist for Innis’ change by taking into account relevant historical context
and its impact on Innis’ scholarship. Finally, he once again uses textual analysis to examine
Innis’ work and how he came to his conclusions regarding communications.
Babe (2015) found that Innis was rejected by the academic community in Canada for
both political and scholarly reasons back in . Namely, Innis held that the development of new
forms of media technology lead to greater misunderstanding, and not necessarily to human

betterment, which was one of the basic tenants of the modernist society that existed during this
time. Or as Babe so eloquently put it, “In declaring that improvements in communication lead to
greater difficulties in understanding, he was repudiating mainstay tenets of governments, media
organizations, scholars, and indeed virtually all proponents of the contemporary, modernist
mindset—namely, an axiomatic equating of technological change with human betterment” (Babe
2015)!
What was interesting about this research was that the focus was on the motivations of the
sender for conducting the message, which is a very unusual perspective. The research was also
regarding the logos, ethos, and pathos of Innis, not so much in terms of his ability to persuade,
but in regards to his personal credibility and logic. This research relates to Medium Theory
because it talks about the foundations behind the theory, and gives a little insight about Innis’
interpretation of the theory, who is regarded as the founder of Medium Theory. It supports the
theory by giving it a vast amount of credibility. It also strongly implies that Medium theory was
at one point tied very closely to the critical gene of communications.
In an earlier article, Babe (2006) gives a far more absolute analysis of Innis’ version of
the theory. While Babe does not have a clearly stated hypothesis, one unwritten one is that Innis
would not view contemporary news media in a positive light, given his ill-regard for media that
focuses obsessively on the present. Babe’s main research question is: Given Innis’ status as a
scholar from Canada, and his lack of recognition outside of his home country, can his work
justify an international recognition of his contribution to scholarship?
The methods used are largely qualitative in nature. First, he uses textual analysis to
scrutinize Innis’ work in-depth, using this method for both the Staple Theory and Medium

Theory. Next, he applied historical analysis to Innis’ conception of the history of various
mediums, correcting and adding to his work when possible. Finally, he once again used textual
analysis to touch on Innis’ conceptions of the role of the media and corporate control over the
media, and use it to critically examine the current issues for communications scholars.
Babe’s research found that Innis’ ideas were indeed important to the modern day. To
scholarship, he contributed three major practices. First, “Innis is a founder of communication and
history, that is the practice of placing media of communication at the centre of historical
analysis” (Babe 2006). It was this practice that inspired the further development of medium
theory. In addition, he provided the foundations of the study of media imperialism, which holds
that mass communication on the part of larger nations negatively effects the national identities of
smaller nations, who have no choice but to take in the media presented by larger nations. Finally,
he shares several key postmodernist beliefs; for example, he believes a massive influx of
information devalues the information it is attempting to convey.
In addition, Babe found that Innis indeed has a negative view of modern media, which he
explained through analysis of both of his theories. First, in his media theory, he attributes the rise
of a new medium, paper, in world history with the rapid destabilization of the traditional
powerhouses of information in Europe, the Church, and the emergence of newer, more
economically focused means of pervasion. It also allowed the development of new languages,
further weakening the Church’s hold. It was the development of the printing press, however, that
spelled the end. It allowed for the mass production of books, as well as a need for financers.
Babe continued Innis’ analysis through his staple theory, which holds that the resources
needed to maintain empires provide a direct connection between an empire and its colonies. In

this case, the importation of lumber from Canada to the Eastern seaboard contributed directly to
the rise of the massive influx of newspapers, which in turn led to the rise of newspaper
conglomerates such as the New York World and the New York Journal. To provide funding for
their newspapers, more and more control was given over to advertisers. This, as well as the rise
of the daily penny press, contributed to the transformation of society. Through the rise of
corporations, Innis holds that scholarship has been suppressed by the entry of said corporations
into the academic world.
The research directly relates to the theory; it gives the historical basis on which the theory
was proposed, which reaches back to Egyptian times to the early 1900’s, and endeavors to
provide a direct connection between Innis’ work and its applicability today. This research
demonstrates that Media theory was bound indelibly close to critical genre. Considering the
entire point of this paper was to validate Media theory, and provide information about it to those
outside of Canada, it definitely supports the theory.
What is noticeable about the early writings of the theory, however, is that it deals only
with the dominant mass media of Innis’ age: the Newspaper. With the rise of the television as a
new dominant form of mass medium for the first time in over five hundred years (this is, of
course, if you disregard the telegraph, telephone, and radio), came also a radical change in how
technology was viewed in respect to Media theory, as well as the way now-traditional media
operated. Enter Marshall Mcluhan, whose theories are far more prominent than those of Innis’.
In Antico (1997), he seeks to investigate if McLuhan’s Global Village is becoming a
reality, and if so, what specific communicative processes are aiding in its development.
McLuhan’s Global Village thesis holds that world technology will lead to unstoppable changes

in Western Society. Over time, the world would become one interconnected community,
connected through “electric wires” in a single mass consciousness. Antico’s research questions
are as follows: “How does participation in the cool medium of television effect changes in
viewers and therefore society? How does the involvement necessary to ‘fill in the gaps’ lead to
changes in behavior at a level most are not even aware of (Antico 1997)? While Antico does not
have a specific hypothesis listed, one can safely surmise that his thesis holds that television is a
critical element in the development of the Global Village.
In this research, Antico first uses histography to draw together the relevant information
from the various sources he is using the support their research, drawing on existing research on
framing, the triad of learning, fundamentals of interpersonal communications, and more. For the
remainder of the paper, he uses what I can only describe as medium analysis, examining the
medium’s effect on society.
Antico found that television itself functions as framework builder, giving those who
actively engage in and are persuaded by the messages frames of acceptable and unacceptable
action. In addition, television breaks down barriers between different classes, resulting in the
potential that all those who engage in the medium will receive similar messages and behavioral
schemas. Television also exposes people to places that they would never had the chance to
physically see before. It was also multinational, allowing for the ideas of different nations to be
transported from one country to another through the medium of television.
As such, the amount of frames a person could learn is far larger than there were in
traditional media. In addition, he also identified television as a type of informal learning.

Informal learning is a part of the triad of learning types. This type results in the mass absorption
of multiple interrelated behaviors through participation.
According to Antico’s research, two elements of intercultural communication contribute
to the subconscious changes in individuals. First, we develop what are called parasocial
relationships, which is where engaging in willful disbelief can reward us with some of the basic
needs for which we engage in communication. We are more likely to develop these kinds of
relationships with those we are in attunement with. Secondly, television programs can create
nonverbal cues through use of stage sets and camera angles, which can create the illusion of
intimacy, which further increases our susceptibility to parasocial relationships. In his final point,
Antico acknowledges the main weakness of his arguments; the audience must be engaged to
build frames and form relationships. He defends his ideas by citing television’s accessibility
through a lack of an intellectual gateway; as most human beings have an intuitive ability to
understand nonverbal cues, it is far easier to engage with it than another medium.
The research provides a different view on the theory in question, as interpreted by a
different proponent of Medium theory. Despite doing so, it still validates medium theory, by
showing that there is more than one way to utilize it. McLuhan uses Medium theory to speak
toward a more positive change in society, his Global Village thesis, while Innis directed his
version toward a more critical view of power. In this, McLuhan moves Medium theory away
from critical theory, and creates two separate schools of thought regarding medium theory.
McLuhan’s influence also impacted the artistic world, according to Allan (2014). This
research paper’s main proposal is that McLuhan’s definition of the counterenvironment is key to

understanding North American art from the 1960’s and 70’s. It does, however, postulate that
McLuhan’s ideas regarding the counterenvironment are critical to understanding
Since this piece is to inform, it primarily uses textual analysis of McLuhan’s works. Two
in particular are mentioned. First, The Mechanical Bride, in 1951, and then The Medium is the
Message: An Inventory of Events. McLuhan’s quotes and other textual elements are integrated
throughout this essay. The remainder of the paper analyzes various artistic works.
I do not think the adequately defends its hypothesis. Nowhere does it sufficiently explain
the relationship between McLuhan and the artists of his times, thought I freely admit that this
may be due to the specialized references to a visual phenomenon, and if they had more examples,
I would have understood the concept more thoroughly. One thing that I found interesting about
this research is that it postulated several things about McLuhan’s work that may be hidden
beneath the surface. It postulated that his two key axioms, those of the Global Village and “The
medium is the Message”, may not have as much of literal meaning as I once suspected.
“McLuhanism tends to be a simplified, feel-good understanding of the theorist’s ideas. Critics
often deride the so-called Global Village as though McLuhan had intended it to be a sort of
international Shangri-la, but he actually understood it to be a claustrophobic, stressful experience
of unending conflict. Some romanticized his updating of the nineteenth-century idea of the
technological extension of consciousness through electricity, but McLuhan warned very
specifically of the totalitarian consequences to electronic mass communication that had to be
resisted” (Allan 2014). In addition to this, McLuhan’s concept of the environment seeks to place
the past in perspective with the present, or to make the invisible visible. In doing this, he places
emphasis on awareness.

This paper does not contribute much to the theory, but it does raise a question: Does
McLuhan’s theory have more meaning than what can be ascertained at the surface level? While
it does not support the theory itself, it does support one of the theory proponents; given this
theory’s relative obscurity, any support, even for one of its proponents, is fantastic.
Given McLuhan’s relative popularity, it is interesting to note that his methodology may
be less credible than Innis. Tremblay (2012) theorizes that Innis’ conception of media may be
more valid and relevant to the modern world than McLuhan’s Global Village. The overall
purpose of Tremblay’s research is to analyze completely their retrospective frameworks and
methods, as well as their contributions to the communications field.
The author primarily uses qualitative methods. First, he uses biographical analysis to
examine how their personal lives may have influenced their research. Second, he uses textual and
content analysis to examine their methodologies and frameworks. In addition to this, for
McLuhan’s work he employs literary analysis. Finally, he examines their work in terms of its
applicability to the wider world.
After reading the article, I find that Tremblay’s thesis definitely holds. McLuhan, a
literary scholar, did not use proper communication research methods to support his thesis. In
addition to this, his theories have little in terms of substance to support them. He uses basic
concepts of psychology, but has no evidence from psychology studies to support himself aside
from his own suspicions. In addition, his style is half hazard clumsy. Innis, on the other hand,
uses clearly social methodologies, such as historical analysis, and his ideas regarding empire and
communications have more relevance within the context of the modern world.

This research has a significant effect on medium theory as a whole. It practically reject’s
McLuhan’s entire thesis in favor of Innis’. This results in a theoretical problem; since the vast
majority of recognized works are of McLuhan’s design, does that mean that the conclusions
drawn off of McLuhan’s work are baseless? And if so, what does that mean for this theory as a
whole? Do we reject the entire body of works committed in McLuhan’s name, and accept only
Innis’ version?
These essays primarily discussed an age before the internet. In recognition of said
changes to the way media operates in this postmodern age, I have included a work by Poster
(2004). Poster is one of the strongest proponents of New Media theory. His hypothesis is that
human/machine interaction (which he terms humachine) is a critical aspect of the emerging
globalization. He has three main research questions: “1. They [humachines] are an evolving,
unavoidable, and central aspect of globalization; 2. they contain countless dangers and afford
considerable resources for highly dangerous prevailing agglomerations of power; 3. they offer
serious points of resistance to those powers and may serve as a base for developing auspicious,
decentralized, multicultural global networks (Poster 2004 p. 319).
To analyze this work, Poster uses media and content analysis, shifting into textual
analysis when regarding the theory of Hardt/Negri, as well as the work of Foucault and others.
The essay used material from Freud, Foucault, and other thinkers of the 20th century. Poster
found that the Marxist model put forward by Hardt/Negri in terms of criticism does not work
with new media, as they are woefully uninformed about several key aspects of new media. One
finding I found interesting was that New Media is not as closely regulated as traditional media
has been, due to its multinational capacities.

This article provides much for the new media theory, explaining that it is still rooted in
the material world, but no longer rooted by space and time. This, in time, may result in a change
in the way medium theory operates. Medium theory is further supported because the concepts of
space-binding and time-binding are clearly carried over from the ideas put forward by Innis.
Artifact Description
Lucasfilm Ltd. was founded by George Lucas in 1975. There were several arms of the
company, created as needed; at one point, the company possessed at least ten different
departments. (Wikia 2016a). One of these divisions split from Lucas film in 1986 after being
purchased by Steve Jobs and eventually formed PIXAR animation studios. Lucasfilm has created
cult classics such as Indiana Jones, American Graffiti, and of course, Star Wars. Throughout the
production of the six original Star Wars films, Lucas controlled much of their direction, serving
as the director, writer/co-writer, and executive producer of most, if not all of the films. In
between the release of Return of the Jedi in 1983 and The Phantom Menace in 1999, a series of
products bearing the Star Wars logo began to appear that developed upon and expanded the ideas
in the films. First came the Star Wars roleplaying game in 1987, and then Dark Horse Comics’
Dark Empire series, and finally the Thrawn Trilogy in the early 90’s, setting the stage for what
would become known as the Expanded Universe/Star Wars Legends (wikia 2016b). Unlike in
the movies, Lucas did not hold as much creative control over the merchandise designed to
expand upon the Star Wars movies. He often served in an advisory capacity, and began to take a
more active step in their creation in the early 2000’s. While those producing the stories did their
best to connect the stories back to the larger universe, the Star Wars universe had developed by
2012 at least five different levels of cannon storylines (Wikia 2016c).

Soon after the merger was completed, Disney made several changes to the Star Wars
story. Their first decision was to solidify the company underneath Disney. They closed several
arms of Lucasfilm, such as Lucasarts video game studios in 2013, according to Kotaku (April
2013), and gave over control of the comics to Marvel, thus bringing the comics under their direct
control. In addition to this, they gave Electronic Arts an exclusive contract to produce Star Wars
for the next ten years. They did two further changes later on to solidify the in-game universe as
well. First, they established two different cannon sources. Everything produced by Disney, as
well as the original movies by George Lucas, are now the official cannon. Everything in the
Expanded Universe at that point was rebranded as Star Wars Legends, and was firmly
established as non-cannon.
Discussion
Prior to the merger, Lucasfilm, in regard to both the company and the Expanded Universe
followed the model of New Media theory. According to Poster (1990), the New Media age was
characterized as “(1) decentralized; (2) two-way: (3) beyond state control: (4) democratizing; (5)
individual consciousness; and (6) individually oriented.” (Littlejohn & Foss 2011). Lucasfilm
was decentralized and had a lack of state control (state control in this case being Lucas himself)
because of Lucas’ cavalier attitude about what was produced by the company. While he
demanded iron-clad control over the six movies, the very existence of the Expanded Universe
and its hodge-podge of authors, contributing companies, and video games that conflicted with
each other demonstrates this lack of centralized control.
In addition, the existence of five different levels of cannon led to two-way
communication between the fans and the company, as the fans negotiated with the company

regarding what sources were acceptable or not, and which should be accepted as official. As an
example, within the universe, there are six different dates from which time can be reckoned,
serving the same function as the acronyms B.C./B.C.E. and A.D./C.E. respectively. For the sake
of consistency, an event that is known to all fan was chosen as the origin date: The Battle of
Yavin IV, which uses the acronyms B.B.Y. and A.B.Y. This was based off information from
Wikia (2016d). This freedom of creative license also served to democratize the Star Wars
Universe to a more limited extent by giving writers relative freedom to create new characters.
Some of these characters and stories were became very popular, to the point that killing off a
character could result in the loss of the more vigorous fans. In the last two qualifications,
Lucasfilm acts more like traditional media, but I will explain those two sections more thoroughly
later on.
Another issue with New Media theory is its credibility. New Media is based off of many
of the ideas put forward by Marshall McLuhan, because of McLuhan’s greater prominence
within the theory literature, as well as his usage of “New Media” such as television in his
theories. However, as I discussed in my literature review, McLuhan’s theories were not as
credible as those of his predecessor, because they had more conjuncture and less facts to back it
up. As a result, I am also rejecting New Media theory because of its dubious cornerstone.
After the merger, Lucasfilm took on most of the attributes of tradition media, which “was
characterized by (1) Centralized production (one-to-many); (2) one-way communication; (3)
state control, for the most part: (4) the reproduction of social stratification and inequality through
the media; (5) fragmented mass audiences; and (6) the shaping of social consciousness”
(Littejohn & Foss 2011). Disney now controlled most, if not all of the means of production, and
created Lucasfilm Story Group, which every potential addition to the Star Wars Universe has to

go through (Wikia 2016e). This is both to maintain the newly established continuity and to keep
control firmly in Disney’s hands.
Disney also held more power over the fans by making it more difficult to interact with the
company heads directly. While Lucas was an easier target, Disney and its collaborators have an
army of public relations spokespeople who read and respond to tweets and other social media.
Disney made sure that the desires of the company and the fans were clearly separate by
establishing this distance between them. In addition, these fans are fragmented into three
different generational groups. The first generation grew up with the original trilogy. The second
generation (my generation) grew up with the prequel trilogy. The third generation will grow up
with the sequels. Disney has to satisfy the demands of all three generational groups; that will not
prove an easy task.
Lucasfilm, even before its merger, did shape social consciousness. There is now a real-
world religion called Jedism, which has its own website. In addition, it added a vast vocabulary
of concepts and rhetoric to the larger world. There are several charities and nonprofit
organizations that operate in the wider world. One notable one is the 501st Legion, which,
according to the 501st Legion (2016) serves a professional cosplay group and helps to promote
social causes such as curing cancer.
As well as this, traditional media theory is based off the work of Harold Innis, whose
theories and model of empires of information (modern day conglomerates) is far more relevant to
the modern world. While we are in a Global Village, not everyone is willing to share, and not
everyone is willing to give up their control over information.
Conclusion

Despite its use of newer forms of media in its theory design, New Media theory fails to
take into account the possibility that the Global Village model used by McLuhan is not as useful
to the modern world as the vision of empires and colonies put forward by Innis. Media
conglomerates such as Disney are the new empires, and smaller subsidiaries such as Lucasfilm
are their colonies. It is exceedingly difficult to maintain an empire through democratizing forces
such as New Media theory. Traditional media theory, with its emphasis on control, is a far better
design.

References
501st Legion: Vader's Fist. (2016). Retrieved April 30th, 2016
http://www.501st.com/index.php
Allan, K. R. (2014). Marshall McLuhan and the Counterenvironment: “The Medium Is the
Massage”. Art Journal, 73(4), 22-45. doi:10.1080/00043249.2014.1016337
Antecol, M. (1997). UNDERSTANDING McLUHAN: Television and the Creation of the Global
Village. ETC: A Review Of General Semantics, 54(4), 454-473.
Babe, R. E. (2015). Innis' Great Transformation: Staples Thesis/Medium Theory. Canadian
Journal Of Communication, 40(3), 489-501.
Babe, R. E. (2006). INNIS AND THE NEWS. Javnost-The Public,13(3), 43-56.
Littlejohn, S. W., & Foss, K. A. (2011). Theories of human communication (10th ed.). Long
Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
Poster, M. (2004). The Information Empire. Comparative Literature Studies, (3). 317.
Tremblay G. From Marshall McLuhan to Harold Innis, or From the Global Village to the World
Empire. Canadian Journal Of Communication [serial online]. December 2012;37(4):561
575. Available from: Communication & Mass Media Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed
March 31, 2016.
Wikia. (2016d, April 6). Galactic Standard Calendar. Retrieved April 30, 2016, from
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Galactic_Standard_Calendar
Wikia. (2016a, April 1). Lucasfilm Ltd. Retrieved April 30, 2016, from
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lucasfilm_Ltd.
Wikia. (2016e, April 02). Lucasfilm Story Group. Retrieved April 30, 2016, from
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lucasfilm_Story_Group
Wikia. (2016c, April 15). Canon. Retrieved April 30, 2016, from
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Canon
Wikia. (2016b, April 17). Star Wars Legends. Retrieved April 30, 2016, from
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars_Legends

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