2008 Woodie Awards
Hollywood writers' strike comes to an end
Deena Zaru
Issue date: 2/16/08 Section: World
Sophomore Phil Kennedy, a peace and conflict studies major said, "I definitely see this strike as an effective form of non-violent protest. The strike has been really exciting for our country as a whole, because it is challenging the established structure of the current media industry."
Vernie Davis, professor and director of peace and conflict studies, agrees that going on strike is an example of a non-violent approach to protest. However, Davis said that there are different ways to make a non-violent statement.
"One of the things that make non-violent movements successful is that they generally seek not to be cohesive or to force people into doing things," Davis said, "but that's not really true of all strikes."
In this case, the writers were able to indirectly "force" producers to negotiate because of the pressure put on them by actors and viewers.
"I think that if sometimes the strikes are oriented to cause someone else to lose money, or causing hurt to someone else, they could create more leverage for negotiation," Davis said.
According to Kennedy, the strike has been extremely successful.
"When shows stop being made, people notice," Kennedy said. "Consumers are directly affected so it really brought the situation to the entire public. The Writers Guild of America has had better opportunities to get their voices heard than many other unions. Since they directly affect people, they were able to get much more publicity."
As a result of the strike, future feature film plans have been delayed and popular prime-time schedules have transformed into reality show and re-run mayhem.
Sophomore Courtney Fields heard about the strike but did not realize how much her favorite show, Grey's Anatomy, would be affected.
"I guess I saw Grey's as this force that couldn't be touched," Fields said, "but I found out differently. Waiting so long for new episodes has killed my spirit. I, of course, get more work done now, but I'm missing my one and only favorite show and now I have to resort to bad reality TV."
Vernie Davis, professor and director of peace and conflict studies, agrees that going on strike is an example of a non-violent approach to protest. However, Davis said that there are different ways to make a non-violent statement.
"One of the things that make non-violent movements successful is that they generally seek not to be cohesive or to force people into doing things," Davis said, "but that's not really true of all strikes."
In this case, the writers were able to indirectly "force" producers to negotiate because of the pressure put on them by actors and viewers.
"I think that if sometimes the strikes are oriented to cause someone else to lose money, or causing hurt to someone else, they could create more leverage for negotiation," Davis said.
According to Kennedy, the strike has been extremely successful.
"When shows stop being made, people notice," Kennedy said. "Consumers are directly affected so it really brought the situation to the entire public. The Writers Guild of America has had better opportunities to get their voices heard than many other unions. Since they directly affect people, they were able to get much more publicity."
As a result of the strike, future feature film plans have been delayed and popular prime-time schedules have transformed into reality show and re-run mayhem.
Sophomore Courtney Fields heard about the strike but did not realize how much her favorite show, Grey's Anatomy, would be affected.
"I guess I saw Grey's as this force that couldn't be touched," Fields said, "but I found out differently. Waiting so long for new episodes has killed my spirit. I, of course, get more work done now, but I'm missing my one and only favorite show and now I have to resort to bad reality TV."
Be the first to comment on this story