'Blogs win out in US writers' strike', Sky News

Monday, January 28, 2008

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The deadlocked Writers' Guild of America strike has proved newsworthy for many reasons, reports James Silver.

It has paralysed a huge industry, cost the Los Angeles economy an estimated £10m a day and still threatens - at the time of writing - to derail the Oscars, just as it did the Golden Globes.

It even prompted late night talk show hosts David Letterman and Conan O'Brien to grow "strike beards".

In the words of one LA Times writer the dispute "has shaken Hollywood to its core".

Yet, the three month-long impasse is notable for another reason too; it can also lay claim to being the world's first-ever 'multi-media' strike.

Traditionally, labour disputes have been conducted on the picket-line and via designated spokespeople on the airwaves.

Cases were put and messages spun by those on both sides with access to the media.

In the pre-internet era, those on the employer side had rather more of that access than those withdrawing their labour.

And when it comes to the 'mainstream media', many of those currently striking believe that that remains the case today.

They argue that the studios and TV producers - represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers - are able to ensure positive coverage.

They are, in many cases, owned by the same conglomerates which control much of the news media.

"With their incredible control of traditional media sources, the corporations that make up the AMPTP have been able to slant all mainstream 'news' about the strike to favour their interests," alleges Charlie Craig.

He is a show-runner (writer/producer) for the Sci-Fi Network and author of the insightful My Second Strike blog.

"It's really been astonishing. And before the internet, before blogging, that would have been it.

"Writers, just like everyone else would read the papers and become convinced that the only point of view they had access to must be the truthful one."

The dispute has also raged on message-boards - especially on LA Weekly writer Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood blog -and on social-networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, as well as via podcasts and YouTube.

"With blogs like United Hollywood and (I hope) My Second Strike, there are ways to disseminate information that, before the internet, would have been throttled," he says.

"I think describing this as a "multimedia strike" is quite accurate.

"Now we've got YouTube - a huge resource that members of the Writers Guild have used brilliantly to get their side of the story out there. And we have blogs that can be set up in five minutes and read by hundreds, if not thousands of people.

"It's been a sea change which has fascinated me."

Another screenwriter-turned-blogger goes even further.

According to the anonymous author of the Writers' Strike blog "blogging has been more effective than picketing."

He says: "Blogging allows writers to create a direct connection with their fans, and fans enjoy the novelty of a two-way dialog with TV and film writers.

"One TV show fan contacted me and is now contacting the heads of studios in support of the writers. She's also told me she's e-mailed all her friends to do so too.

"Couch potatoes have got off their couches [thanks to blogs].

"Also blogging allows writers to control how their message comes through, whereas picketing just gives TV news a quick five-seconds of B-roll of a bunch of writers with beards.

"Writers are in a unique situation as strikers since many of us are middle to upper-middle-class. We're not construction-workers.

"Our asset is not physical intimidation. It's the power of the pen."

You can read more articles by James Silver at www.jamessilver.net

Posted by James Silver - On Monday, January 28, 2008

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