Strike: The consequences of the new media. Today the WGA (Writer's Guild of America) said enough is enough and decided to walk out. This fascinates me because of the reason that they decided to strike. They are upset, and rightly so, with the big media groups posting previous episodes on the Internet and they don't get a piece. They get revenue when shows go into reruns, and they count on this residual income. But the contracts are such that the writers are cut out when it is posted on the Internet. Ironically the Daily Show with just added some 13,000 clips on Comedy Central's site, and the first interview that I heard on the strike was from one of those writers. The clips all have embedded commercials, but the writers will not reap any benefit from it.
Before anyone accuses me of being on the side of the unions, I am not. This isn't a union issue per se, at least not for me. It is an issue of each individual negotiating for the right to receive a residual income for work they have produced. I think that these individuals, represented by the union, got a bum deal because when the last contract was written they just didn't understand the explosion of the popularity of the Internet. Since the Internet is now so much more popular they probably should get about the same deal for new media.
But what I am interested to see is if this will dramatically change TV or the Internet. To me this is about as important as the hockey strike some years ago, or the professional women's bowling association. I just don't care. I don't watch TV, don't even have a TV. I have a monitor for DVDs and my kids' XBOX, but that is all. So if all of these wonderful shows disappear I won't even notice. Just like I didn't notice when hockey stopped. But it will be interesting to see what attention the new media of the Internet will get during negotiations. Who knows maybe everything will grind to a stop and people will learn to read again. Families will start having meals together and talking. Children will learn to play with their siblings instead of sitting like zombies in front of the little screens.
Then again, they will probably resolve this quickly and we can resume the dumbing down of America.
Before anyone accuses me of being on the side of the unions, I am not. This isn't a union issue per se, at least not for me. It is an issue of each individual negotiating for the right to receive a residual income for work they have produced. I think that these individuals, represented by the union, got a bum deal because when the last contract was written they just didn't understand the explosion of the popularity of the Internet. Since the Internet is now so much more popular they probably should get about the same deal for new media.
But what I am interested to see is if this will dramatically change TV or the Internet. To me this is about as important as the hockey strike some years ago, or the professional women's bowling association. I just don't care. I don't watch TV, don't even have a TV. I have a monitor for DVDs and my kids' XBOX, but that is all. So if all of these wonderful shows disappear I won't even notice. Just like I didn't notice when hockey stopped. But it will be interesting to see what attention the new media of the Internet will get during negotiations. Who knows maybe everything will grind to a stop and people will learn to read again. Families will start having meals together and talking. Children will learn to play with their siblings instead of sitting like zombies in front of the little screens.
Then again, they will probably resolve this quickly and we can resume the dumbing down of America.
1 Comments:
If you took away the TV what would families talk about over their TV dinners?
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