The current Hollywood writers strike has drawn international attention to the plight of TV and film writers in the streaming era. Much has been made of television’s golden age, during which streaming…
Tag: Strikes
Actors are demanding that Hollywood catch up with technological changes in a sequel to a 1960 strike
For the first time since 1960, actors and screenwriters are on strike at the same time. As with many of the other strikes that have rippled across the United States over the…
What are Hollywood actors and writers afraid of? A cinema scholar explains how AI is upending the movie and TV business
The bitter conflict between actors, writers and other creative professionals and the major movie and TV studios represents a flashpoint in the radical transformation roiling the entertainment industry. The ongoing strikes by…
Reality TV show contestants are more like unpaid interns than Hollywood stars
In December 2018, John Legend joined then-newly elected U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to criticize the exploitation of congressional interns on Capitol Hill, most of whom worked for no pay. Legend’s timing was…
Taylor Swift and the end of the Hollywood writers strike – a tale of two media narratives
This fall, I’ve been starting my sociology classes by asking my students to share some uplifting news they’ve come across. On Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, they were abuzz about Taylor Swift’s appearance…
The fight for 2% − how residuals became a sticking point for striking actors
Streaming disrupted the entire entertainment industry, upending the DVD-purchasing, film-renting, moviegoing model of decades past. That shift has also changed how actors get paid. And some of the gains actors made through…