When the Writers Guild of America published their official strike announcement, they made the existential nature of their fight clear: 

“The companies' behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce,” they told their members, “and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing. […T]hey have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing as an entirely freelance profession.”

As writers working in a media industry already devastated by the corporate class’s never-ending drive towards maximizing profit—too many of us driven into freelance work by layoffs and the disappearance of stable staff jobs—the WGA’s nightmare is increasingly our reality. 

Furthermore, as critics, journalists, and editors who cover the entertainment industry, we know better than most the tactics the studios employ to undermine and reduce the value of the human labor that goes into creating the “content” on which their profits rely.

We also know that it’s our responsibility to make those tactics clear to our readers. This is not only a matter of journalistic accuracy—it’s a responsibility  central to our role as critics: to show that TV and movies aren’t content but art, the fruit of human creativity and labor rather than assembly-line gruel. By acting collectively, we have the power, through our coverage, to shift the conversation.