Exploitation of Hollywood writers is just another symptom of ‘digital feudalism’

This is a guest post by David Arditi, associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Arlington. A version of this article is republished fromThe conversationunder a Creative Commons license.

The current Hollywood writers’ strike has drawn international attention to the plight of TV and film writers in the age of streaming.

We talked a lot about televisions Golden ageduring which streaming platforms have offered audiences an abundance of well-written and highly-produced television shows, often referred to as prestigious television.

While older TV shows tended to be sitcoms or crime dramas, newer shows more closely mimic 19th century serial novelswith cliff-hangers that encourage binge-watching.

But not everyone in the industry has equally reaped the rewards. While there is certainly more writing work to be done, these roles often pay less and place writers on short-term contracts.

Additionally, the inflexible demand for content, as more and more platforms compete for subscriptions, has trapped writers in what I call digital feudalism.

Echoes of medieval Europe

I use the term digital feudalism because today’s version of capitalism increasingly reflects the transition from feudalism to capitalism in 16th century England.

From the 16th century, the English Parliament adopted a number of closing actswho abolished common land and defined it as private property that the government reallocated to the elites.

These laws kicked the peasants, known as serfs, out of the land where they had lived and worked for generations. Many of them ended up going to the cities to find work. The resulting oversupply of workers drove down wages, and many ex-serfs could not find jobs or housingbecoming wanderers.

In other words, the serfs lost the stability of their daily lives as they were thrust into a new economic system.

Precariousness, indebtedness and lack of stability are again the dominant themes in today’s digital economy.

The gig economy, in which people can juggle two or three part-time roles to make ends meet, is largely to blame. These jobs generally does not offer full-time benefits, a living wage or job security. The roles – whether they work as an Uber driver, deliver food for DoorDash or clean houses via Task Rabbit – are often handled through digital platforms owned by powerful corporations that give their workers a pittance in exchange for their work. .

Hollywood serfs

So why do television writers feel the pinch of digital feudalism if this is the golden age of television?

Streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu and HBO Max brought about the golden age. But gold prospecting has slowed downas the number of prestige tv shows seems to have reached a saturation point.

Starting in the 2010s, streaming platforms started hiring more and more writers. To attract customers, platforms needed quality content – ​​otherwise viewers wouldn’t keep paying the monthly cost from $8 to $15 of a subscription.

The platforms couldn’t market their content like network sitcoms, so they had to constantly develop new ideas for shows. Large stables of creative writers eventually formed the core of the studio’s strategy.

Yet as television writers flocked to Los Angeles and in New York, entertainment companies have taken a page out of the gig economy’s playbook in ways that have hurt writers’ livelihoods.

The contracts were short and lower salary. The formats of streaming shows — more one-off miniseries rather than decade-long sitcoms — rarely guarantee work for a long time.

Additionally, streaming shows tend to have fewer episodes per season, with larger gaps between seasons, known as not much time. An eight-episode season of a popular show that has a two-year gap between seasons is leaving TV writers scrambling to find ways to pay the bills between seasons.

Then came COVID-19. While people were stuck at home binge-watching TV, it has become difficult to produce television. There was a significant backlog in television production due to difficulties in shooting television shows in the studio while adhering to COVID-19 health regulations.

This created a significant slowdown in television production. At the height of the pandemic, television studios closed to limit the number of people inside. With the slowdown in production, there was no demand for writers. As a result, many television writers who had recently moved to Log Angeles and other large cities with high living costs faced difficulties finding employment.

Basic requirements

Writers want to solve this problem by raising their minimum wage; they want screenwriters on streaming platforms to receive the same royalties as screenwriters on theatrical films; and they want to end the practice of mini roomswhere small groups of writers craft scripts but often receive less compensation for a series that may not even be commissioned.

Another key request is to limit the use of artificial intelligence in television production.

Writers fear that studios will use AI to hire workers, select shows to produce and, in the worst-case scenario, replace writers altogether. Interestingly, the limitations of AI have been the only point of contention that the studios didn’t even want to discuss.

It will be interesting to see if screenwriters will be able to recoup some of the financial security that has disappeared across many industries, or if the larger economic forces that have fueled the gig economy will work in favor of studio executives.

Subscribe

Knowledge is power !

Subscribe for free today and stay up to date with the news and tips you need to grow your career and connect with our vibrant tech community.

Technically Media