Striking Writers Use Web to Spread Message
The striking WGA writers have been making clever use of new media to spread the message about how they are not being paid for content streamed online. Fortune reports that the writers have launched blogs, placed videos on YouTube and set up social network profiles.Writers also began using social networking sites, including MySpace and Facebook, to communicate among themselves. The irony of using a site like MySpace, which is owned by media conglomerate News Corp. (Charts, Fortune 500), a company being struck by writers, does not go unnoticed.One of the most popular blogs established by the writers on strike is called United Hollywood. You can see many other blog, video and website resources on this webpage on writerswrite.com.
"It can't be fun for Rupert Murdoch for me to be doing this in his back yard right now," said Kristen Stavola, a screenwriter behind the MySpace site "Hollywood Interrupted."
One of the most popular efforts has been the video "The Office is Closed," which was shot on the picket lines by Peter Rader.
The video features the show's writer-producer Greg Daniels and cast members belittling a TV network claim that reuse of episodes on the Web is merely "promotional."
That video, posted on YouTube, has been viewed more than 520,000 times.
"We realized we had the opportunity to take the Internet and use it against the companies which are trying to dominate the Internet," Rader said.
Rader said the videos, blogs, social networking pages and other efforts constitute a "virtual picket line" where writers can communicate their position without having it filtered through the media, much of which is owned by the companies that also control TV networks and film studios.
Posted on November 27, 2007
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