Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
TV on Strike: Why Hollywood Went to War Over the Internet

TV on Strike: Why Hollywood Went to War Over the Internet

Littleton, Cynthia

Paperback

Series: Television and Popular Culture

LaborTelevisionGeneral Sociology

Publisher Price: $24.95

ISBN10: 0815604920
ISBN13: 9780815604921
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Published: Mar 15 2025
Pages: 322
Weight: 0.96
Height: 0.73 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English

TV on Strike examines the upheaval in the entertainment industry by telling the inside story of the first writers' strike--the hundred-day writers' strike that thwarted Hollywood in late 2007 and early 2008. The television industry's uneasy transition to the digital age was the driving force behind what seemed then to be the most significant labor dispute of the twenty-first century. Now, in 2024, we know it was only the first battle.

The strike put a spotlight on how the advent of new media distribution platforms reshaped the traditional business models that governed the television industry for decades. The uncertainty that sent writers out into the streets of Los Angeles and New York with picket signs laid bare the depth of the divide between the media barons who rule the entertainment industry and the writers who are integral as the creators of movies and television shows.

With both sides afraid of losing millions in future profits, a critical communication breakdown spurred a fierce battle with repercussions reverberated in the 2023 writers and actors strikes. The saga of the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike is told through the eyes of the key players on both sides of the negotiating table and of the foot soldiers who surprised even themselves with the strength of their resolve to fight for their rights in the face of an ambiguous future. In the years since the strike ended, the rise of digital distribution platforms has continued to change the business landscape in ways that few could have predicted when Hollywood guilds were first feverishly trying to hammer out a contract template for a new era.

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