Popular Communication, 8: 20–33, 2010 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1540-5702 print / 1540-5710 online DOI: 10.1080/15405700903502387 HPPC 1540-5702 1540-5710 Popular Communication, Vol. 8, No. 1, Dec 2009: pp. 0–0 Popular Communication The Picket Line Online: Creative Labor, Digital Activism, and the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America Strike The Picket Line Online BANKS Miranda J. Banks Emerson College During the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, feature and television writers turned to the digital sphere as a tactical strategy for representation, visibility, and promotion. While the growing interest in digital distribution was the impetus for this strike, it was also the medium that enabled writers to successfully communicate with each other, with the media industry, and with the general public. This article examines three major strategies deployed by WGA leadership during the strike that revitalized the Guild and facilitated their ability to work as a unified front during their labor struggle with the multinational corporations that control creative production in Hollywood. What happens to labor as media is in transition? As the number of films produced in the enter- tainment capital decreases, the number of scripted television series steadily declines, and the number of viewers flocking to online sites such as YouTube and Hulu is growing substantially, Hollywood continues to adapt to the shifting tastes of media audiences (Harris, 2008; Hessel, 2009; Motion Picture Association of America, 2008). These changes in technology, in audience behavior, and in production practices affect more than just the bottom line. Many veteran Hollywood practitioners who make their living producing entertainment media are deep in a process of modifying their skills to produce content for new platforms; advancements in meth- ods of production, distribution, and circulation of media content are significantly affecting and ultimately redefining the nature of media work. Some see the rise of digital technologies among users heralding the death of Hollywood as we know it — the industrial structure, as well as the practitioners who work within the American film and television entertainment industries. Yet Hollywood has survived prodigious technological sea changes before. This article investigates the labor history surrounding Hollywood’s move to digital distribution, examining how this industrial and technological change led to not only a moment of crisis, the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, but also to a feeling of extraordinary unity among the diverse commu- nity of writers that make up the Guild. After briefly highlighting how changing technologies have always been at the center of guild negotiations, I turn to three distinct ways in which the digital sphere — the centerpiece of the labor negotiations during this negotiation cycle — was mobilized by writers and those sympathetic to their cause, as a tactical strategy for representa- tion, visibility, and promotion. Correspondence should be addressed to Miranda J. Banks, Department of Visual and Media Arts, Emerson College, 120 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116, USA. E-mail: Miranda_Banks@emerson.edu Downloaded By: [Banks, Miranda J.] At: 19:30 5 February 2010