Writers on Strike

This week, Hollywood writers will go on strike. The Writers Guild of America (WGA), a labor union representing more than 12,000 TV and movie writers, has ordered the strike for 12:01 a.m. PT Monday. This strike will halt production of movies, and force TV stations to run repeats.

Screenwriters say, they are entitled to a bigger share of the royalty payments for the use of movies and TV shows on the Internet and handheld devices, and increases for sales of DVDs. The WGA also faults studios for getting non-guild writers to write character blogs, MySpace profiles, as well as video game, mobisode, and webisode spinoffs.

The online market is becoming an increasingly influential medium. It is the responsibility of studios to recognize the new media’s changing role in the entertainment industry.

Many believe, however, that this strike is a catch-22. The lack of new entertainment on TV will drive more people to watch programming online and as a result many Hollywood writers could move to the Internet.

Hopefully the entertainment industry, studios and writers alike will see that television series, movies and new media are no longer mutually exclusive--sooner than later.

Sources:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15315098
http://newteevee.com/2007/10/25/what-does-a-wga-strike-mean-for-new-media/

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