Creatives on Strike

Writers, Actors, and How Tech is Rapidly Changing our Media Landscape?

In his 1935 essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Production, philosopher Walter Benjamin critiques how art is produced in post-industrial Europe. His argument? Just how art is produced—and—reproduced dramatically affects the ways an audience may view it.?

In fact, he argues it’s the very reproducibility itself that alters the essence—or “aura”—of the work.?

Benjamin’s thesis on art production is nearly 100 years old, and prescient. In the 21st century, we find ourselves at a familiar junction wondering: what will art look like in our new era of mass (artificially intelligent) production??

It’s no idle inquiry. Already, many an artist worries their craft may soon become obsolete. (I mean, who wants to be out-mastered by an algorithm?)?

All this is to say, with so many weapons of mass reproducibility suddenly at our fingertips, is there any turning back??

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Summer in Hollywood is heating up in more ways than one. The last time SAG-AFTRA and WGA simultaneously went on strike was over 60 years ago. And yes, (really), Ronald Reagan, then president of the actor’s union, led the picket line.?

Stars of the time included Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. Meanwhile, film classics like Hitchcock’s Psycho and the original Ocean’s Eleven stamped Hollywood as American culture’s top-dog.?

Even then, screenwriters and actors struck over better pay, including what would later be called residuals. (Following TV’s invention networks would play old flicks, breathing new life into features previously limited to theatrical releases. Thus, the re-run was born, resulting in a cash cow for the ages.)?

Residuals soon proved to be another headache for studios after creatives came for their cut. Still, as a result of these lengthy strikes, writers and actors won better rights. Both unions secured guarantees they would profit from movies that made it to TV. In fact, residuals became an entire income stream allowing creatives to thrive from their fruits of their labor.?

Flash forward and we may observe today’s writers and actors aren’t the only collectives striking for better concessions.?

Last year, the crew members union IATSE called a strike for better pay and hours. The Director’s Guild of America recently signed a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). This new agreement also delves into the ramifications of AI, guaranteeing directors a bigger slice of the residual pie. Even novelists have lately sounded the alarm over publishers utilizing their work to train machine-learning algorithms.?

So how did we arrive at the first dual strike in decades??

In a word: streaming. Readers of Consume at Once know all too well how rapidly technology can change content. But AI is shaping up to be the straw that’ll break the camel’s back, especially when it comes to modern art.?

Yet, even before artificial intelligence could mimic high-level creative tasks, like producing music, streaming burst onto the cultural scene.

And streaming sure made a dent.?

Consider how Google bet on the nascent video sharing site YouTube in 2006. Or how after not becoming Blockbuster’s streaming arm, Netflix debuted streaming in 2009. Soon after, more legacy players, including Comcast, Yahoo, and AOL joined forces to create Hulu, their answer for the digital space.?

Even though “cutting the cord” from traditional cable offerings meant streaming customers would have to pay for several subscriptions at once—a la carte style—many opted for it anyway. Tired of endless commercials, they especially loved the idea of video on demand. Bye bye, appointment watching!?

Yes, AI is today’s hot topic, commanding headlines, but streaming has been the real (tech) elephant in the room for years. As recently as 2008, writers called a strike in anticipation of the incoming tsunami. (A helpful video from Vox explains just how streaming caused the standoff we’re witnessing today.)

To appreciate this double-edged sword moment, consider the following.?

Before streaming, under 100 shows were produced yearly. Now? There are nearly five times as many. Also, with streaming came binging. Network television shows only ran once a week, but they’d run for months. That meant writers worked for forty weeks out of the year thanks to this schedule.?

But now? Not so much. As Vox explains, today’s binging-based habits are a result of shorter (8-10 episode) “seasons”. A far cry from the September through May seasons we all grew so accustomed to. But it’s worse for writers than viewers. Without lengthy seasons, it’s much harder to string together an actual career in a writer's room.?

Then there are the residuals themselves.?

Writers (and actors too) used to be paid every time their work ran on a network. With streaming though, creatives get far less than what they made under networks. A TikTok by Kimiko Glenn went viral recently when the ‘Orange is the New Black star exposed her meager residual check.?

Enjoying over 105 million streams, ‘Orange is the New Black’ is one of Netflix’s most-watched original shows of all time, beating out beloved originals like House of Cards and Stranger Things. It even eclipsed (by a lot) popular acquired programs like The Office and Breaking Bad.?

The amount for Glenn’s residual? $27 dollars.

Beyond the (understandable) grievances instigated by streaming, each union has been anxious to tackle the AI question too. SAG-AFTRA has stated it doesn’t want to eliminate AI usage outright. Rather, it’s demanding actors must consent and be compensated for their likeness.?

The WGA that struck months before SAG-AFTRA, has demanded a similar guarantee. According to an NPR interview, “Writers want more regulation of AI. For example, bans on studios using it to write or rewrite things like stories, treatments, and screenplays or even write the source material that human writers would adapt for the screen. They also don't want the writers' work to be used to train AI.”?

However all this collective bargaining shakes out, it’s clear creatives feel threatened by advancing AI coming on the heels of streaming. And they have that right. But technology’s inexorable march will not slow.?

Just as TV catalyzed new struggles between innovation and artists, AI will do the same. To Benjamin’s point, with these changes will also come shifts in style and content, similar to how streaming gave rise to highly engaging and addictive television. So it’s not all bad. But I have a feeling we’re going to see much more conflict in our (tech-accelerated) creative vs economic tug-of-war.?

Thank you for reading. If you like what you just read, please subscribe for more content. Consume at Once is about how to simplify a complex world being disrupted by technology. Any opinions or forecasts contained herein reflect the personal and subjective judgments and assumptions of the author only.