Writer’s guild strike and new media

jeffreyclong — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:20:25 +0000

The writer’s guild strike hasn’t hit us where it hurts yet, i.e. the interruption of new episodes of our favorite shows. If it does, I will lose some favorites. NBC seems to have suddenly discovered that there is a market for science fiction and given us shows like “Bionic Woman,” “Journeyman,” and my favorite, “Heroes.” Fortunately, Heroes is written in Britain so even if the writer’s strike eventually causes an interruption, “Heroes” will go on. And I think the final season of my ultimate favorite “Battlestar Galactica” has already been written. For some God-awful reason they are making us wait until March for that.Anyway, I’m already in a world where the writer’s guild strike will not have as much of an impact on my entertainment as it will on others. Sure I’ll miss “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Numb3rs.” But really, since moving my TV watching to my computer, I am less dependent on network programming. With Joost I can start watching “Babylon 5,” an old science fiction TV show that I didn’t catch the first time around. On Miro I can watch “The Lab with Leo,” a tech TV show that originates in Canada. And while I won’t get any drama via video podcasts, losing network shows would free up my time for net shows like “Tekzilla” and “Cranky Geeks.” Netflix will also come in handy if the writer’s strike goes on. I’m currently watching the Fox cartoon “The Critic” and have queued up old shows that I didn’t watch like the first time they aired, like the first seasons of “Alias,” and “24.” And finally, lets not forget audio books from Audible and the good old fashioned paperback and hardcover.All told, I think the networks are going to be hurt more by this writer’s strike then the writer’s themselves. They are going to discover that through the avenues of new media we have plenty of things to entertain us besides network television. I know I do.

Jeffrey C. Long » Media

Writer’s guild strike and new media