Writer Guild

If there has been one thing to rock the Media world in the past year, it would be the Writers Guild Strike. The strike of the W.G is important to media fanatics because it has showed how strong new media is starting to affect our society. It also shows how much of an affect the internet has formed on our experience of enjoying and experience video entertainment. Also these new mediums, like the internet, are starting to challenge the way business has been done before and the value we associate with these things.

The W.G. is basically striking because they feel that it is unfair that writers are not making any money off of the internet sales of shows and episodes and even the free airing of the shows on certain websites while the companies like NBC and ABC are making money off these episodes up for download and free showings.

Seeing the internet as a new medium to transcend, many T.V. companies hoped to make more money off of this new media by gaining more access for fans to interact and enjoy these shows and buy more from them. So many companies have set up deals with Apple and other companies like that where they set up their shows able for download for a certain price, allowing fans to take their favorite shows anywhere they go and keep up in storyline despite the busy life that many American’s live now. This seemed like a great idea because now many people can still enjoy their favorite shows but yet there also seemed to be a darker side to this, that being the question of who was actually receiving all that money.

Before the invention of the internet TV viewers were treated to what is known as ‘re-runs’, when a show would be replayed a number of time and every time the show was replayed the companies would get paid a certain amount. Yet, none of this money was showed to any of the writers for many years until finally under pressure to have writers companies had to give in.
As amazing as it was to see people get paid for their original work we also see how there was already friction between the W.G. and the companies on how the money for these original works was handed out. So it is only natural that with the birth of the internet we see these frictions and strain coming back into play since who really owns the things that are put out on the internet? That might just be the biggest question of the W.G. Strike. If we see this as a new and free domain then who owns the right to put whatever they want up there?

While it’s sad to hear about these writers being unable to be paid because their contracts do not talk about the sales of internet work and internet sales, it’s almost hard to feel that bad.
Not that I am siding with the companies or the W.G., it is sad to see that the playing field has become us, the viewer. Instead of talking it out and working out the kinks these two forces have started to gamble with us, the consumer. The W.G. say that without them the companies will lose fans and will crumble while the companies claim that viewers will be fine with re-runs and stay committed to their programs until new episodes come back on the air. It is almost disgusted that they have forgotten the true purposes of these new medians that have been developed, and that is to entertain, inform, and made to be enjoyed. While some new media has been created for business purposes we know from the past that entertainment and enjoyment has been very powerful to the development of new media and technologies. Now it is about money and which side will win out and get paid more.

It’s sad that the companies and the W.G. are in this battle and while it is sad that the writers are not being paid and they need this money to feed their families, it’s also sad to see how little the consumer means to them now.

Hopefully soon the two forces can come to a certain agreement. Yet with this agreement we will see a new change with the way the internet is viewed and how the media will be used in the future.


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